Amants
by Davner
Summary: When Peorth's past catches up with her, she'll have to decide how much a person can change and whether that change is for the better or worse. Chapter 7 is up.
1. Love Your Enemies

Disclaimer: Ah! My Goddess does not belong to me. It is the property of Kosuke Fuhishima.

**Amants**

**Chapter 1: Love Your Enemies**

Urd jumped as a firm hand snagged her wrist a moment before the first drops of amber liquid could fall from the beaker into the miso soup simmering merrily on the stovetop. Turning her head fast enough to cause her silver tresses to whip outward, she found the scowling face of the woman who was once again interfering in her efforts to get her sister's relationship moving along at a more reasonable pace. Sighing dramatically, she arched an eyebrow at the other goddess.

"Do you mind, Peorth? I'm working here."

"I've seen your work, cheri, and I'm still not impressed by it," the brunette goddess replied coldly. "How many times must I tell you? The road to love runs through the heart, not the stomach. And certainly not through their hormones." She released Urd's wrist, but snatched the potion away from her. She took a quick whiff and curled her nose up at it.

"Mon dieu! Herrig's Root extract? You'd have them rolling around on the kitchen table like a pair of sex-starved badgers!"

She quickly dumped the offending potion down the kitchen drain. Urd crossed her arms over her chest.

"Look, I'm all about the lovey dovey stuff too," Urd told her. "The flowers, the soft music, the moonlight." She gestured theatrically as she listed them. "But when you get right down to it, none of those things are going to get the ball rolling. Those two are both too shy, too old fashioned, to just break down and admit there's a physical attraction, and without a physical relationship, the emotional will stagnate."

Peorth shook her head as she ran the sink. "Who taught you Theory of Romance? If a physical relationship is rushed, the regret and doubt that springs from the act can _poison_ the emotional and spiritual bond already in place and stunt their growth!"

"Their spiritual and emotional bond has matured to its peak!" Urd shot back. "A physical encounter will act as a catalyst that will crystalize the bond between them!"

"You are not dealing with two mortals or even two gods!" Peorth cried. "And as a goddess first class, I am _ordering_ you to halt your meddling!"

Urd clenched her fists. "As if I'm going to just step aside and leave my sister's happiness to some old maid?"

"'Old maid?!'" Peorth shrieked. She let out some choice curses at the other goddess in French and tried to rein back her rage.

Seeing her off balance, Urd pushed her a little more. "This is a job for a love goddess who actually knows about, you know... LOVE..."

The reaction Urd got stunned the Norn. Before she knew it, Peorth was toe to toe with her, her eyes lit up with wrath, but instead of yelling, she spoke quietly, her voice rising in volume with each word.

"I received my love goddess certification from Venus herself," she hissed. "In my time as a love goddess I've inspired countless marriages and even countless more illicit affairs! I've mended broken hearts! Melted icy ones! Brought peace and tranquility to widowed souls! UNDONE THE INTEGRITY OF KINGS!"

Urd blinked at the intensity of it all as Peorth's voice rose until she was practically shouting at the other goddess.

"I've loved one god!" she hissed. "Just one! With a passion and intensity that a pill-peddling trollop like you could NEVER understand! I have seen, and felt and ENDURED more love than any three goddesses combined! So don't you EVER tell me what I know and don't know about love! It is pure and good and so help me GOD, if you sully what those two have, I will see your certification revoked and you reassigned to muse duty, inspiring HALLMARK VALENTINES DAY CARDS!"

This wasn't fun anymore. Somehow Urd crossed a line she hadn't known was there. She put her hands up and spoke quietly. "Okay... Okay... I get it. I'm sorry. Just... calm down, all right?"

Peorth blinked, and it was as if she was stirring from a bad dream. "I..." She stepped back and turned red, this time with embarrassment. She closed her eyes and took a breath.

"I knew you had buttons to push, but I guess that's the big, red, shiny one I should avoid, huh?" Urd asked, trying to inject some levity into the situation.

Peorth looked at her, meeting her eyes. When she spoke, she was calm again. "Those two deserve the chance to find love for themselves," she said, putting her teaching voice on. "Not to have it foisted on them from outside."

Urd sighed. "I think you're wrong." Peorth started to open her mouth again. "But for now, we'll play it your way."

Peorth looked away, still ashamed of her outburst. "Merci."

The Norn leaned against the counter. "You okay?"

For a moment, Urd thought the older goddess was going to open up, but a moment later the shield of dignity and haughtiness came crashing down again. "I'm right as rain, cheri." With that, she turned on her heel and walked out of the kitchen.

Urd took a breath, unsure of what had just happened. She had seen Peorth get emotional before, of course, but this time she was positively livid. It was more than questioning the goddess' professional abilities, it was as if Urd had questioned the disposition of Peorth's soul.

The Norn liked pushing buttons to get a reaction out of people, but even she knew there were some lines you just shouldn't cross.

She made a note not to cross that one again.

888

Peorth's feet came to rest on the temple roof as she floated downward and immediately sat down, her gaze cast at the temple grounds below. The sun had set an hour ago, and the stars were beginning to come out in force. Sighing, she looked up at them.

She regretted losing her temper so completely with Urd. A part of it, she knew, was her own failings in this task. Peorth considered herself an utter professional, not only doing what was necessary to get the job done, but doing it in the best possible way for the best possible outcome, and while progress _had_ been made with Keiichi and Belldandy, it was the bare minimum and only a fraction of what she had hoped to accomplish.

The other part, she knew, was what Urd had said.

Of all the disciplines a goddess could enter, love was the most complex and difficult. Death was easy, fertility almost fun. War unpleasant but crucial. And love...

With the development of love potions, everyone and their mother thought they were a love goddess. And then to claim that Peorth didn't...

She snorted. As if Urd would know what real love was.

Then again, if Peorth was such an expert, why then did she keep failing?

She gave the problem some hard, honest thought. When she first arrived, she did what any professional would and sought out research materials that would let her understand courtship in Japan. Unfortunately, she found out too late that romance manga wasn't a firm basis on which to make her assumptions. She realized that now.

Perhaps her mistake was making the assumption that gods and mortals were so different in this area. Urd was right. Their emotional and spiritual relationship was very solid, but it was waiting for something before it could proceed further.

And it wasn't just Keiichi to blame here either. Belldandy was perfectly content to wait for him to make the next move. She, after all, had eternity. Keiichi did not.

_Time to draw on experience, not research,_ she thought.

She tapped her foot against the roof and laid back, looking up at the stars. What had worked on her? She had to really think to remember it all, it had been so long ago, and she had been such a different person, nothing near the mature and worldly goddess she now was.

Flattery had always been nice, but inconsequential.

Gifts had merely informed her of what she already had known.

No, she knew what it was. It had been upon the realization that no one in Heaven knew her better and no one him. When fear of embarrassment had given way to the comfort of knowing that no matter what happened, he'd be there for her.

No, it was not the physical that needed work, nor the emotional or the spiritual. It was the mental.

The thought led her to memories that made her quiver slightly. She smiled.

_No, Urd, you couldn't possibly understand..._

The elder Norn was making the mistake of thinking that physical love was the height of lovemaking. It wasn't, and Peorth knew from experience.

She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, hoping she could draw out the memories, the times when her angel and his would embrace and meld, linking their thoughts together as one. Urd, who only recently called forth her angel and whose last boyfriend had no angel himself, couldn't possibly know the feeling of knowing your lover's every thought, of feeling your paramour's own love for you refracted, reflected and magnified in your mind's eye.

There was no greater expression of love than that. She felt a flash of pity that Keiichi and Belldandy would never know that feeling, for if there was ever a couple in history that deserved to know that love, it was them.

Her eyes opened, and she whimpered quietly as the memories pulled away.

But she had her idea.

Rising to her feet, she bid the stars adieu and hopped down off the roof.

888

The puny mortals stood in various lines in the cavern below, each waiting anxiously, unsure of what would happen to them once they reached the front, but he knew.

He knew that a demon clerk would look over their paperwork and then, in a bored, unsympathetic voice, tell them that they were in the wrong line and that they would have to go to the back of the next one and wait. At which point the process would repeat itself over and over.

Metheus had to give Hild credit. Modeling Hell's reception area after the modern day DMV did more to sap the hope and will out of the newly damned than any lake of fire or spear-wielding devil.

He turned away from the window, his one good eye finding the doorway as it opened for Hild's "guest." The patch he wore didn't hide the burn scars over the rest of the right side of his face, but it spared others the sight of his missing eye.

The demonic advisor had wondered who this guest was all day. All he knew was that Hild had been positively ecstatic all morning ever since receiving word that this guest had been "recovered" in Realm 202, The Hedge.

His eye quickly glanced at Hild as she sat on her throne, waiting in barely suppressed glee as two members of her Elite Guard brought the guest into the throne room. What Metheus saw when he glanced back took him by surprise. This certainly was unexpected.

Being dragged between two of the shadow-like guards was Frigga herself, wife to The Almighty and a goddess of the highest choir. The auburn-haired goddess looked like she had seen better days. Her white dress was torn in several places and she was missing an earring, but it didn't appear that she was permanently damaged. He wondered how many Hellriders had been lost in the battle to subdue her. Frigga was not known for meekness.

He grunted in appreciation. No wonder Hild had been so happy. If there was a goddess in Heaven Hild hated purely, it was her romantic rival.

As if on cue, the arch demon rose from her throne and clapped her hands together. "Frigga! How wonderful it is for you to come visit! It's so _good_ to see you!"

The goddess raised her head as if just noticing the other woman for the first time. "Hild," she said weakly but with brass, difficult to do in Hild's presence, particularly when one's powers had been stripped as Frigga's had been. "Thou lookst well for a woman of yon obvious years."

Hild stepped down toward her, laughing gamely at the comment. "Oh, Frigga! You're such a kidder!" She held out an outstretched palm and a bolt of black lightning encompassed Frigga's body, causing the goddess to scream in agony. The demoness smiled ruthlessly as she poured hellfire into her rival.

Finally, Hild stopped and sighed dramatically. "And how is my lover?" she asked.

Frigga took several deep breaths as she recovered. Finally able to raise her head again, she answered.

"Thoroughly satisfied in every way," she bit out.

Metheus winced sympathetically.

Frigga's screams echoed throughout the throne room and down into the reception area. Two hours later, it ended with Hild yawning and stretching theatrically.

"Administering all this justice makes me so sleepy," she told Frigga, who was writhing painfully on the floor below her. "I'd like to keep you around so we can continue this later, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to seal you away until my daughter's father decides how badly he wants you back."

Frigga didn't answer, having finally, mercifully passed out.

Hild nodded to the Elites. "Take her to the sealing chamber."

"Your Majesty, if I may?" Metheus asked.

Surprised at the request, Hild turned to him and placed her hand on her hip. "You have a better idea, Metheus? I do hope it's the best idea ever, because you know how much I _hate_ being questioned."

"It only occurred to me, Majesty, that this is the first time we've had a goddess of such high rank here," he replied. "She is, after all, a seer, and the only goddess allowed to sit on Hlidskjalf. She knows a great deal of beneficial information that might be gleaned from a proper interrogation."

"I considered it," Hild told him. "However, from what I know of her..." she punctuated this with a kick to the goddess' abdomen. "... I believe she is an unsuitable candidate for such an interrogation."

Metheus arched an eyebrow. "I would have thought you would relish the challenge," he remarked.

"I prefer better odds," Hild told him frostily.

"Ah," Metheus replied, stepping closer until he was standing over the goddess, looking down at her appreciatively. "I merely thought you would enjoy the process of breaking her down." He raised his head and looked at the queen. "But you're probably right. I doubt even you, with all your skill and power, would ever be able to extract anything of use from a head as thick as hers."

Hild's eyes narrowed at this, but Metheus continued.

"She should be sealed immediately." He made a gesture to the two Elites, who approached the goddess.

"Metheus, wait," Hild ordered suddenly. "Perhaps you're right. And I _have_ been looking for a new hobby since I finished that jigsaw puzzle..."

The advisor waited as he watched Hild toss the idea around in her mind. Finally, the queen spoke again.

"We will take what she knows. Prepare her for interrogation."

Metheus bowed low. "I shall see to it myself, Your Majesty."

He watched Hild and the two Elites walk out of the throne room, leaving him alone with the godly queen.

888

Thunder cracked overhead as a bolt of lightning illuminated the children's playground in the park that sat a quarter-mile from the temple. The wide, open area was exactly what she needed, and she nodded in satisfaction. The final piece was complete.

She knelt down in the sandbox and dug a small, shallow hole with her hands. Reaching into the small bag she had brought with her, she placed two brown roots in the bottom of the hole before pulling the stopper on a vial containing a red, fizzing potion. She dumped the entire vial into hole and then pulled the stopper on another vial, pouring a viscous, blue chemical after the red.

Adding a few more ingredients, she finally covered them with sand and set about drawing runes into the sand around it. There was another crack of thunder followed by a flash of lightning, but this time it cast a shadow over Peorth.

She looked up and found Urd standing on the other side of the sandbox, grinning down at her.

"And may I ask what the great goddess first class is doing now?" Urd began, folding her arms over her chest. "Or do I even need to ask seeing as you 'borrowed' dentien root from my cupboard? As there's only one real use for it..."

"You already know what I'm doing then," Peorth sighed as she carved a few more runes into the sand. "What of it?"

"I just find it ironic considering not three hours ago you were giving me the third degree over the same thing."

"It's not the same thing," Peorth told her, rising to her feet.

Urd arched an eyebrow. "It's sneaky, underhanded, violates their privacy, and I want in," she finished.

Peorth was taken aback at the statement. "Excusez-moi?"

"Are you kidding?" Urd asked. "I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier."

The other goddess grinned. "Very well. Help me sing the chorus."

Lightning lit up the playground as Peorth and Urd stood on opposite sides of the sandbox. The two goddesses lifted their hands into the air and closed their eyes. Softly and slowly, Peorth began to sing in Heaven's program language, her voice rising with each line.

Urd listened for her cue, and as Peorth trailed off at the end of the first stanza, she began to sing as well, allowing her power to flow into her voice.

After several minutes of singing, when their voices had risen to a crescendo, a bolt of lightning reached down from the heavens and struck the center of the sandbox.

Peorth and Urd stood there for several moments, their eyes closed and their hands outstretched. Finally, Peorth opened one eye and looked down, seeing the scorched earth and glass in the sandbox.

"Exquis," she whispered with a smile. Kneeling down, she pushed aside burnt sand and shards of glass until she found what she sought. Lying at the bottom of the hole she dug were four small blocks of tofu.

"Four?" Urd asked.

Peorth shrugged. "It's been years since I had to use a spell like this. I wanted to make sure I had enough."

"You realize, of course, they'll be incredibly pissed," Urd warned her.

"Oui, but they'll thank me later," Peorth replied, putting the tofu in a small, plastic bag. "Let's go before the rain comes."

888

Metheus eyed the queen carefully as he pulled a small, red pill from his pocket. He gave it another moment to go over the plan again before he knelt next to her.

Frigga was starting to come around. He reached out and took her chin in his hand, holding her jaw open and shoving the pill into her throat. The queen sputtered and fought him, but he held firm.

"Swallow it!" he ordered firmly. He clamped her mouth shut until the thrashing woman complied, then pulled her roughly to her feet.

Frigga coughed violently. "What manner of filth has thou poisoned me with, demon?!" she demanded.

He pulled her roughly out the door and started down the dimly lit hallway.

"What did thou give me?!" she demanded again.

"It's an astral dissipator," he growled quietly. "It'll make it harder for Nidhogg to track you."

"Nidhogg? What are you..."

Before she could finish, Metheus pushed her against the wall and slapped her cruelly with the back of his hand. The goddess fell to the floor, stunned as two Elites marched by them, paying them no mind at all.

"You will speak when spoken to!" Metheus' coarse voice announced. She felt his hands grab her and pull her bodily to her feet as if she weighed no more than a newborn. Her back burned painfully as he pushed her against the wall, his lips descending to her ear.

"I can offer you only the slimmest of chances of escape," he whispered, "But only if you shut up and play along."

Grabbing her roughly by the back of the neck, he pushed her down the hall. The queen's mind swam with confusion. Why would a demon, any demon, offer her escape from this place in defiance of Hild? A trap. It must be a trap.

"I shalt not play a fool for your liege," she growled at him. "Now will I assist in my own torture."

Theatrically as possible, she went limp, falling to the floor.

Metheus blinked in astonishment. "Enough," he growled. "Get up!" he hissed at her.

"If thou wants me, thine arms can drag me," she replied, snootily turning her nose up at him.

Grabbing her again, he pushed her against the wall. "Listen!" he hissed, "And try to understand! That dissipator will keep you off Nidhogg's screens, but that will not keep them from finding us the old fashioned way if we do not hurry! Hild's wrath will be terrible, and she will gladly give up two demons to the Doublet System if it means she gets the entertainment of torturing us both to death!"

"Two?" Frigga whispered in confusion. "Who are you?"

He checked the hallway in both directions before answering. "_The sun, the sister of the moon, of the south... Her right hand cast over Heaven's rim; No knowledge she had where her home should be..._"

Frigga, her eyes wide, finished. "_The moon knew not what might was his; The stars knew not where their stations were!_"

His blue eye locked onto hers, and she released an incredulous breath. "You're one of The Seven," she breathed. "You're all supposed to be dead."

"Three of us survived," he whispered. "And soon there will only be two if you _do not move!_"

Taking her by the back of the neck again, he pushed her forward down the hall. This time, Frigga obeyed.

888

Peorth shook her head dismissively as Urd dialed the cell phone. "There is no way this is going to work, cheri."

"It'll work," Urd replied. "What's she doing now?"

Peorth poked her head into the kitchen and saw Belldandy setting the table. "She just put the soup out."

"Perfect!" Urd hit 'send' and waited. A moment later, the phone in the hall started ringing.

"Coming!" Belldandy called out. They watched as she walked by them, then rushed into the kitchen.

"Moshi moshi!" Belldandy said into the phone. "Hello? Are you there?"

"Come on! We only have a few seconds!" Peorth cried as she mixed one of the tofu cubes into the soup bowl sitting where Keiichi usually sat.

"Relax," Urd told her, doing the same with Belldandy's plate. "I've seen her stand there and talk to a dead line for forty-five minutes."

"CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!" they heard Belldandy shouting into the phone. "I think we might have a bad connection!"

"You're kidding me, right?" Peorth asked with an arched eyebrow.

Urd finished mixing the tofu and crossed her arms over her chest. Her lips moved as if she was speaking, and it took Peorth a moment to realize she was mouthing the same words she was hearing Belldandy say down the hall.

"Are you taking a nap?" Urd mouthed. "It is a lovely day just to relax inside on a comfy futon. Ah! Perhaps after we're done talking I'll take a nap myself! Perhaps after the laundry..."

Peorth shook her head. "Mon dieu," she whispered.

"Hey," they heard from the other door as Keiichi entered. "Is breakfast ready?"

"Have a wonderful day! I really enjoyed talking to you!" They heard the phone hang up and Belldandy reentered the kitchen.

Urd threw a look to Peorth that said, "Watch this," and turned to Belldandy.

"Who was that?"

Belldandy smiled. "I have no idea!"

Peorth's head was starting to hurt. She sat down and watched Belldandy and Keiichi go through their daily ritual.

"Here you go! I hope you like it!"

"It's delicious!"

"Really?! I'm so happy!"

_It's like they've been married for twenty years,_ Peorth thought. _Heh, no wonder they're not having sex..._

She watched as they both finished off their soup. Peorth wasn't sure what to expect. For all she knew there'd be flashes of light and The Almighty would appear on a cloud of glory. Instead, Keiichi excused himself and went to get ready for class while Belldandy cleared the table.

She'd have to keep a close eye on them today.

888

The klaxon echoed throughout every hall in Hell. Metheus looked at the ceiling and cursed. "They're onto us. Quickly now!"

They had managed to get to an area of Hell that was sparsely populated, which only meant that it would take minutes and not seconds for them to be discovered.

"ALL QRF TO THE SOUTH END IMMEDIATELY!" a voice echoed through the caverns.

"This way!" Metheus led her into an open cavern.

"How do we escape?" she asked quickly as they huddled down into a dark corner.

Metheus searched the hall with his good eye. "Two halls over is a hardline nexus. We can cut through Realm Zero and get back to Heaven."

"The Spark is dangerous," she cautioned.

"Dangerous" was an understatement. The Spark, the burning remnants of the Big Bang from which The Almighty had forged all other realms, was fraught with peril as pieces of existence and nonexistence, matter and antimatter, swirled through a maelstrom of ether around a massive ball of fire. Icarus was not a human who flew too close to the sun. He had, in fact, been a god who made the mistake of coming too close to the spark. The Flame of Everything had consumed him before he even felt the heat.

"It's the fastest way," Metheus told her.

She nodded. "Very well." Leaning back against the wall, she closed her eyes, grateful for a moment's rest. She opened them a moment later and regarded him. "How long have you been down here?"

"Centuries," he told her. "I have not seen the sky since..." He looked lost for a moment. "I... I'm not sure. I don't even know what century it is in Heaven."

"It is the Fourth Age," she told him. "The Age of Reclamation."

He released a breath. "I've missed out," he said.

"Will the others be endangered by your helping me?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, we don't speak or interact. It's best that way. No presumption of guilt by association will befall them."

Standing up, he offered her his hand. "We must go now. Their search will soon bring them here."

888

"Almost ready?" Keiichi asked, hefting his motorcycle helmet with one hand and his keys with the other.

"Almost," Belldandy replied. She was standing in the middle of the living room, her finger to her lip in thought.

_Where is it?_ she thought to herself. _I left that binder right over here last night..._

"It's on the kitchen counter," Keiichi called from the front door.

Belldandy snapped her fingers. "Of course! Thank you, Keiichi san!"

She was halfway to the front door with her homework when she stopped. _How did he know?_

"Know what?" he asked.

She blinked at him. He blinked back.

Belldandy smiled. "It's nothing. I'm ready."

The two started for the Beemer parked on the east side of the house. Keiichi looked up at the sky and smiled.

_It's such a beautiful day,_ he thought. _Too beautiful to spend in a classroom. We should ditch today..._

"What should we do instead?" Belldandy asked quizzically from behind him.

"Huh?" he asked, turning.

She blinked at him. "You said we should skip class today. It's not very responsible, but you're right, it _is_ beautiful out..."

"I didn't say that," he said.

"Yes, you did."

_No, I didn't!_

_Yes, you did!_

They came up short as they both realized that neither of their lips moved for the last part of that exchange.

_What the hell?!_

"Keiichi san! Language!"

"I didn't say anything!"

He raised a hand. "Okay... Let's just think this through calmly. I know you can read my emotions. Is it possible that maybe you're just reading my mind a little better today?"

"I don't think so," she replied. "Besides, it seems to be you too. Try reading my mind." She closed her eyes and thought of something.

Keiichi looked at her and could swear she was talking, but her lips weren't moving. "We're having udon tonight for dinner so we have to stop at the store on the way home," he said.

Belldandy gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Oh my goddess!" he gasped. "I can read minds!"

He turned as Skuld skipped out onto the porch.

"Oi! Skuld!"

She turned to them. "Yeah?"

He stared at her and concentrated. Skuld's eyes narrowed.

"Stop staring at me, pervo!" she cried and ran back into the house.

"Anything?" Belldandy asked.

"No, not a thing!" he replied.

_How did this happen?_ he thought.

"I don't know," Belldandy answered.

He wasn't sure who thought of it first, but the name appeared in their both heads almost simultaneously.

"URD!"

888

"Now why do you automatically assume that _I've_ done something?" Urd asked innocently as she leaned back and settled in to watch the latest episode of Winter Storm. Standing off to the side, Keiichi and Belldandy gave her accusing looks.

"Because ninety percent of the time when something like this happens it's because you've done something to cause it," Keiichi answered her.

Urd smiled. "Can't fault your math, but it wasn't me this time."

_Liar!_

"Keiichi san, it's not nice to jump to conclusions," Belldandy replied to the thought. She turned to Urd. "Neesan, if you say you didn't do it, then I'll believe you, but you don't look at all surprised, which means that you _do_ know who did."

"That would be me."

They turned as one and found Peorth standing in the doorway.

Belldandy blinked in confusion. "But why, Peorth san? What can be gained by Keiichi and I reading each other's thoughts?"

"Oh, that's just the beginning, cheri," Peorth told her. "I've given you both a mental wavelength modifier. Over the next three days your brainwave patterns will come closer and closer into synch until finally they will overlap and..." She gestured theatrically then sighed. "Epiphany."

"Epiphany," Keiichi repeated in puzzlement. "Which means what, exactly?"

Belldandy was silent, her hand over her mouth in realization. "You didn't!" she finally cried.

Peorth grinned. "I did!"

"What does that mean?" Keiichi asked again.

Before he thought to look at Belldandy's thoughts for an explanation, the middle Norn was running from the living room and down the hall. They heard a door slam, and Urd sighed.

"I guess I should probably talk to her," Urd told them climbing to her feet.

"What the heck is going on here?!" Keiichi demanded as Urd left the room.

Turning, he found Peorth's face a bare inch from his own. "Epiphany," she said quietly. "When, in one single moment, everything there is to know, you will know. Thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, all will be laid bare. Bashful walls and shields of shyness will be cast aside. You will, in essence, for one brief moment, become one."

Keiichi took a step back. The speech sounded so grave and important, it took him a moment to realize he still had no idea what she was talking about.

"So, basically, I can read Belldandy's thoughts and she can read mine," he concluded.

"At this introductory stage... yes," Peorth replied.

"And you did this why again?"

"Keiichi, ma cher," she began, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Tell me, what kept you from telling Belldandy you loved her?"

He came up short. It had only been three weeks since the night Peorth had trained him to say it, motivating him like it was some kind of prize fight.

Peorth smiled. When she spoke, her words came out silkily. "Because you are afraid of rejection, but not only that, you are afraid of losing standing in her eyes. All men and women are afraid of this. You keep thoughts secret to yourself, afraid of what the other would say if they could see them." She took a step back. "I bet you've played that scene out in your mind for two years before you finally said it."

He found it difficult to argue with that. As the full implications of what Peorth was saying finally sunk in, the college student started to turn deeper and deeper shades of red.

"So... she'll be able to see all my..."

She nodded. "And you'll see hers and everything will be out in the open!" she declared. "Then you can move away from all of that nonsense and get on with simply being together."

"Oh, goddess," he breathed in horror. "That's... You... How..."

Peorth waved dismissively. "No need to thank me..."

Ice clutched his chest as his mouth opened and closed in horror of what Peorth had done.

"What have you done?" he gasped.

She arched an eyebrow. "I've saved you years of fumbling around in the dark and asking yourself, 'should I or shouldn't I?'" she said. "You will know one another better than any other couple on Earth. Besides, it's not like it's forever."

"That's not the point," he growled.

"Non? You love her. She loves you. Most couples would move to another stage of their relationship, but you and her... languish... in a kind of purgatory of feelings. She intimidates you, and you puzzle her. Now, she will understand you better, and you will see your intimidation is just foolish fear."

He rubbed his temples. "I think I preferred Urd's love potions," he muttered. He blinked as he felt Peorth take his face in her hands. A moment later, he was looking deep into her eyes.

"Keiichi, do you know what it's like when a god and goddess make love?"

The way she said it made his heart beat faster. "No," he replied stupidly.

"When we make love, our angels, our higher selves, emerge and meld," she whispered. "When that happens, everything we are, every thought and feeling, combine together. We become one entity, a product of our purest emotions. It's like being wrapped in a warm blanket with the person you love. It's you and them and nothing else. There's no outside, no world, no Creation. Just you and them and your feelings, a purity of shared emotion. There is nothing like it on this Earth. You might hate me forever for what I've done, and you're welcome to, but what I have given you is probably the greatest gift you will ever receive."

When she stepped back, it was like a spell had been broken. He blinked, coming fully to himself again. When he was finally able to focus on her again, he saw her hand on her face, wiping away a tear.

"Um... Are you okay?" he asked.

She smiled. "Oui. In a way, I'm jealous." The goddess cast her eyes downward for a moment before locking with his again. "I've long since given up any hope of having that kind of experience again. Have fun."

Turning, she stepped out of the room. It was another full minute before Keiichi remembered he was supposed to be mad at her.

888

"Look, this is a good thing!" Urd told her. Pacing back and forth before her, Belldandy didn't answer. "I don't get why you're acting like this."

"It wasn't right, Neesan," Belldandy snapped. "It's a violation..."

"Oh?" Urd asked, arms folded over her chest. "As I recall, you've never had any problem looking into Keiichi's thoughts and feelings when it suited you. Now that the shoe is on the other foot and the playing field is level, _now_ it's a violation?"

"What you and Peorth have done goes far beyond empathy or telepathy," Belldandy told her.

"I still don't see why this is such a big deal to you," Urd replied. "I expected Keiichi to be the one to lose his mind, not you."

Tired of pacing, Belldandy sat down in the corner. "He'll see everything," she whispered.

"So?"

Belldandy gave her and stern look. "Perhaps I didn't want him to see everything... just yet."

The elder Norn arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Don't tell me my darling little sister has a dirty secret?"

Belldandy didn't answer. Instead, she looked into her sister's eyes. "Please reverse this, Neesan. I... I beg you..." She cast her eyes downward.

Urd blinked in honest surprise. Her sister never _begged_ anyone for anything. She felt a twinge of guilt. "I'm sorry, Belldandy, but there's no way to reverse the process. The only thing to do is wait it out."

The younger sister closed her eyes. "He'll see everything," she whispered.

888

They were too exposed, and he hated it. The path they were on was carved into the side of a cliff that ran around the edge of a deep canyon. Turning to his right, he could see the same path on the other side of the chasm a hundred meters away. Below them, almost a mile down, a pool of magma bubbled gloomily.

"How much farther?" Frigga asked him.

"Not far," he replied. The path widened ahead of them with a passageway leading left, deeper into the cliff. It was just as they were approaching it that a black-clad demon second class stepped out.

It was a chance encounter, and the one second surprised pause probably saved their lives. Metheus' hand shot to his belt and came up with a one-gig flash drive. The demon recovered and started for the soulblade on his belt. Before he could free it, Metheus leapt forward and grabbed him, stabbing the USB jack downward onto the demon's forehead.

The demon screamed as electricity arced around him, sucking him into the flash seal. A moment later, the gig-stick fell to the stone floor with a clack.

"Do you think anyone heard that?" Frigga asked as he retrieved the stick.

Before he could answer, a bolt of blue light struck the wall between them.

Metheus caught sight of a Hellrider on the far side of the chasm, firing as it rushed down the path that would circle around to them. Lifting an arm, he channeled some energy through his finger and blew a chunk out of the wall ahead of the demon, forcing it to pause and duck. The last thing Metheus wanted was to kill any of them. The Doublet System would take its vengeance by killing an equal number of gods in Heaven.

The Hellrider fired back, not caring too much about the implications of their deaths.

"Into that chamber!" he ordered Frigga, nodding at the door from which the demon had emerged. "There should be..."

He was cut off as one of the Hellrider's demonic blasts cut through him, entering his right side and exiting through the other side of his body. Without a sound, Metheus fell to the floor.

"Metheus!" Frigga cried, rushing toward him. Kneeling down, she took him by the shoulders and started to drag him. His eyes were half closed as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

"Leave," he gasped painfully.

"I will not," she declared imperiously as she continued to drag him toward the door. Before she could take another step, however, another bolt of energy slammed into her right shoulder, spinning her around and knocking her to the floor.

She lay there gasping in pain for a moment. The blast had gone straight through her shoulder. Biting back tears, she summoned her strength and pushed herself back up. She could see the Hellrider still rushing around the chasm toward them. Screaming with every movement of her wounded arm, she grabbed onto Metheus' body and pulled him toward the door.

Three large, red crystals stood on pedestals on the far wall. They had made it to the hard line nexus.

Metheus took a pained breath and managed to point to the center crystal. "That one leads to Realm Zero," he gasped.

Frigga thought for a moment and shook her head. "You'd never survive a trip through The Spark," she told him. "What about this one?" she asked, pointing to the crystal on their right.

He swallowed and struggled to stay conscious. "Earth," he breathed.

The goddess made a note to thank a luck goddess next time she happened on one. Her daughters were on Earth. She could get Metheus to help.

"We'll have... to use your travel medium," Metheus croaked. "Quickly."

She leaned down and grabbed Metheus' hand with her good arm, then reached out and touched the crystal with the other.

When the Hellrider entered the room, they were already gone.

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Love Yourself

Disclaimer: AMG! Is not mine.

**Amants: Chapter 2**

**Love Yourself**

The culinary arts classroom at Nekomi Tech, so busy during the day, was eerily quiet at night. Ovens, counters and sinks sat grouped together throughout the room, giving each student their own workstation.

Disturbing the quiet scene, one of the ovens shook ever so slightly. Then again.

Finally, several loud bangs pierced the darkness, and the oven door flew open, disgorging smoke and two figures covered in soot.

Frigga hit the floor hard, coughing and blinking the soot out of her eyes. Behind her, Metheus rolled drunkenly from the stove onto the floor. She took several deep breaths and rolled onto her back, trying to sit up without using her shoulder.

"We have escaped," she announced with a cough. "Splendid."

Metheus coughed and struggled to remain conscious. His wound was already worsening. Hellrider weapons were designed with a particularly wicked feature that prevented wounds from closing and accelerated infection.

"Where are we?" he croaked.

"Earth," she replied. "Although... I know not where..."

"Well, that doesn't help us," he pointed out weakly.

"There was no time to zero in on the correct oven," she explained defensively. "But, at the very least, I think I managed to get to the right city."

"Right for what?"

"My daughters live here," she told him. "They can help us."

Metheus pushed out with his legs and managed to sit with his back to one of the pantries.

"Is it possible for them to track us here?" she asked pointedly.

He closed his eye for a moment and shook his head. "They'll know the realm, and they will certainly send demons to track us, but they won't know precisely where we are."

She regarded him worriedly. "How is thy wound?"

"Bad enough," he croaked. "Yours?"

"I will live."

"You should hurry," he rasped quietly, starting to lose consciousness again. "Your powers will return now that you're away from Hell. Use this time to escape."

"I will do no such thing," she argued. "I'll find my daughters and bring back help." She turned and found the door on the other side of the room. Nodding in satisfaction, she checked the cabinets and found a cup which she filled at one of the sinks. She knelt next to him and held it to his lips. "Drink," she ordered. "I will return as quickly as I can."

"Don't waste your time," he told her. "They will mobilize and come for you."

"Metheus," she said quietly. "You have saved my life, and for that I owe you mine. I will return with help." She stood and turned to go.

"Wynn."

She turned back. "Your pardon?"

His eye locked onto hers, and he smiled softly. "'Metheus' was my cover," he explained. "My name is Wynn."

She smiled back. "I will not be gone long, Wynn," she said. Then, turning, she disappeared through the doorway, leaving the other god to pass out on the floor.

888

They had spent the entire day not quite sure what to say or think to one another. As a result, they now found themselves staring across the table at one another, each with a look like that of a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Sitting on a shelf nearby, a clock ticked, the only sound in the room.

Finally, Keiichi spoke.

"Um... Are you doing it now?" he asked her.

"No," Belldandy replied. "Are you?"

"No..."

Silence returned.

After a few moments of fidgeting, he spoke up again. "Look, this is stupid," he announced. "There's nothing we can do about it. It is what it is. We shouldn't let it ruin our evening."

Belldandy smiled. "Hai!"

"So..." he said.

"So..." she replied.

_Why is this so damn awkward? _he thought. _She's always been able to read my mind. Why is such a big deal now?_

She started slightly and blushed. _I've never been able to read your thoughts like a book, Keiichi san. Just your emotions._

_Oh, crap! I thought that out loud!_

_Gomen! I didn't mean to hear it!_

_I can't hide my own thoughts! How am I supposed to... Oh, jeez! Stop thinking, Keiichi! She can hear you!_

_No, I'm not listening. Honestly... Oh, wait..._

"For god's sake!" he cried. "Let's just talk! Out loud!"

"Hai!" she agreed quickly.

Silence.

"So... when I asked Peorth about this, she gave me a long, metaphysical explanation... Could you break it down for me?" he asked. "I mean... How does this work?"

_If it is what I... Oh, sorry..._ "If it is what I think it is, we're going to go through four levels of escalation before epiphany," Belldandy said. "We're in the first stage now, where we can read one another's conscious thoughts. Stage two is when we can sense each other's emotions..."

"You mean like you already do with me?"

"No," she said. "I can sense and identify your emotional state. What we'll be doing is actually feeling the emotions. So if, for instance, you become angry at someone, I would feel that and become angry as well."

_So if I were to get...SHUT UP, KEIICHI!_ he thought.

Belldandy looked at him in confusion.

"Sorry," he said. "Please go on."

"The third stage will give us access to each other's memories," she said. "The fourth, our dreams. And then... epiphany."

"And epiphany..."

"For a moment, we'll be one person," she told him. "It only lasts a moment, though."

He nodded. "Okay... This doesn't sound so bad."

_Except for when you see... Silence, Belldandy!_

He looked at her quickly. "Huh?" he asked.

"What?" she asked.

"You were thinking..."

She suddenly whipped her head around to look at the clock. "Gomen! It's time to make dinner!" With that, she rushed into the other room, leaving Keiichi thoroughly confused.

888

Her shoulder throbbed painfully as she trudged up the hill, following the sidewalk. Passers by stared, drawn to her odd clothing, but didn't speak to her.

When Frigga reached the top, she stopped to rest, looking down at the wound on her shoulder. Demon blasts were notoriously difficult to heal, and nearly impossible to do so without the help of another god. Hers was already starting to fester physically and spiritually.

She held her hand to her ear and listened for her daughters' heartbeats. They were closer now.

The goddess gave herself another minute before slogging forward again. Her legs felt like wet cardboard, but she pushed forward. Finally, after another quarter-mile, she fell forward against a streetlight, too weak to go on.

"Providence," she whispered. "Providence, help me," she begged.

She blinked as a bright light suddenly filled her vision. Lifting her hand to block it out, she cried out and dropped it as the pain in her shoulder reminded her of its wound.

The light was stationary now, sitting before her.

"Um... Hello?" a female voice asked. "Are you okay? Do you need help?"

Frigga smiled and felt the world darken around her. "Urd," she gasped. "Belldandy..."

Then she collapsed to the sidewalk.

Megumi switched off the headlight on her motorcycle and dismounted.

"Oh, jeez," she muttered as she knelt next to the woman.

888

"Hey! Guys!" Megumi grunted as she trudged into the house, Frigga's arm over her shoulder and only half conscious. "Little help!" she called.

Keiichi found her first. "What's going on?" he asked, rushing to help her carry the woman.

"Who's hurt?" Belldandy asked, rushing into the room. She saw who the siblings were carrying and gasped. "Moder?!"

"Moder?" Keiichi asked with a blink.

Belldandy's thoughts explained it all in a flash of a second.

_She's our mother, Frigga, the Almighty's wife. She's a seer. _

"Oh," Keiichi replied vocally.

Megumi looked between them in puzzlement. "Huh?"

_Keiichi san, put her on my futon!_

"Right!" He started pulling the goddess toward Belldandy's room.

Just as Frigga's head hit the pillow, Urd poked her head into the room. "Hey, what's going on?"

Belldandy turned to her, her face a mask of concern. "Moder's here! She's hurt!"

Urd knelt next to the woman. Frigga's head was lolling from side to side in pain. The Norn's fingers gently traced over the burnt area of her shoulder.

"This is from a demonic blast," Urd said quietly.

"I'm sorry, a what?" Megumi asked. "Was she shot? Someone shot your mom?!"

Keiichi looked to Megumi. "Um... Megumi, we're going to need some medical supplies... um..."

_Alcohol, _Belldandy supplied. _And bandages._

"Alcohol and bandages," Keiichi parroted vocally. "Could you run to the store?"

"But if she's been shot, she should go to the hospital!" Megumi argued.

"She hasn't been shot," Urd told her. "By a gun, anyway," she added in a murmur. "We can bandage this up."

Megumi sighed and shrugged. "Okay. If you say so." She turned and left the room.

Once she was out of earshot, Belldandy turned to Urd. "A demonic blast?"

Urd nodded and held her glowing hands over the wound. "They're tuned to encourage spiritual festering. Makes them harder to heal."

Before she could get into the real work of sealing Frigga's wound, the queen snatched Urd's wrist with her good hand.

"You have to help him, girls," she gasped out.

"Who, Moder?" Belldandy asked. "What happened to you?"

"The god who helped me," she said quickly. "He's... he's in a big room with many ovens and sinks..."

"Like a restaurant?" Keiichi asked.

"There... there was a name on the door," Frigga continued. "'Matsuhara?'"

Belldandy felt a surge of awareness in Keiichi and turned to him. _What is it?_

"There's Professor Matsuhara, the culinary arts teacher at the school," Keiichi told her.

"That must be it," Urd agreed.

Before they could confirm this with Frigga, the goddess had passed out again.

"You two go check it out," Urd told them, once again setting out to heal her stepmother. "I'll help her."

888

Normally, it was difficult to hold a conversation in the Beemer if it was going faster than a few miles per hour, but when you didn't have to rely on your mouth or ears, it was surprisingly easy.

_Will she be okay? _he asked her.

_Hai, the wound didn't appear too serious, and Urd is quite adept at healing._

Keiichi chewed on that as he turned down a side street. _Heh, I guess this thing has its advantages, huh?_

She didn't answer.

_You're really upset at all this, aren't you?_ he asked.

She glanced over at him. _A person's most intimate thoughts should be their own to share. I'm quite upset that my sister and Peorth would take that right away from us._

He stared down at her for several moments. _I'm glad._

"What?" she asked quickly out loud.

_Damn! I keep thinking things I don't mean for you to hear. What I mean is that I'm glad you feel that way._

_Why?_

For a moment, he felt a flash of confusion, as if unsure of why he even felt the way he did. He wondered if stage two was setting in.

_Honestly? I expected you to be fine with the whole situation. To just shrug it off or see it in some great, wonderful light. The fact that you feel the way you do makes me feel better about feeling that way too._

She blinked at him. _Really?_

He nodded, but didn't reply. They were pulling into the school parking lot.

888

He had passed out, his back resting against the cupboard. His wound throbbed as it festered from the inside out, troubling his sleep, but he didn't care.

It was over.

One way or the other, the mission he had been sent on all those centuries ago was finished. He had done his part. If he died here, it didn't matter. Frigga was safe.

It didn't matter.

As his slumber brought these thoughts in and out of focus, there was no room left in his mind to detect the thing that silently approached him. He didn't feel the soft movement of air generated by its pitch black bat-like wings or its breath on his cheek as it brought its jaws to within an inch of his face.

He didn't hear it hiss at him, didn't see it raise its clawed hand over his face.

The creature regarded him as it opened and closed its jaws in thought. Its grey eyes betrayed its intelligence. It was no ordinary monster.

Its head shot up as the doorknob turned and the door opened. It hissed.

Keiichi hit the light switch and watched as the fluorescent lights flooded the room, revealing the wounded god nearby.

"He's over here," Keiichi said. Belldandy followed quickly inside.

There was no monster in sight, but from its hiding place, it watched them...

And growled.

888

Once Frigga's wound was closed and the rot cleaned away, Urd left her in Belldandy's room to sleep. Stepping out of the bedroom, she walked through the house toward the kitchen. She heard the front door open and close and watched Peorth enter, patting her mouth with her hand in a drawn our yawn.

"So, how are the love birds?" she asked with a grin.

"That's kind of on hold," Urd told her. "We might have a problem." She quickly explained how Megumi had found Frigga wounded by a demonic blast and how Keiichi and Belldandy were out searching for the god that had apparently helped her.

"Will she be all right?" Peorth asked.

Urd nodded. "I closed and healed the wound. She's sleeping now."

"Poor thing," the dark haired woman sympathized. "Do you think trouble's coming?"

"Maybe," Urd sighed.

Peorth nodded and started for the door. "Skuld is in the garage working on something with Banpei. I'll let them know to be careful."

"Don't go far, okay?" Urd asked. "We might need you, oh great goddess first class." She performed this last part with an exaggerated bow.

"Well, _of course_ you'll need me," Peorth told her with a wave. "I'll be nearby."

Urd smiled as the other goddess walked out. It couldn't have been more than a minute later that she heard Belldandy's voice calling out from the bathroom.

"Neesan! We need your help!"

Urd rushed to the bathroom and found Belldandy emerging from the mirror, dragging something behind her. By the time her sister had fully emerged from the mirror, Urd could make out what it was. It was a blond man in dark, black and grey robes. A patch covered his right eye, nearly obscuring the demonic sigils on his face.

A million questions popped into her head, but she shelved them for the moment and reached out to help her sister. She supported the demon's back while Belldandy pulled his arms.

"Push, Keiichi!" Belldandy called.

In response, the demon came tumbling out of the mirror. The blue light emitted by the mirror started to dim, but Belldandy quickly reached through it and grabbed something, pulling as hard as she could. A moment later, Keiichi fell out of the mirror onto the floor.

"Is this him?" Urd asked.

"We think so," Belldandy replied, kneeling next to the man. "His wounds are severe. Keiichi san, Neesan, help me get him into the light."

The three lifted Wynn up and carried him into the kitchen, placing him gingerly onto the table. Belldandy opened his shirt, revealing the entry and exit wounds just above the hips.

"Hey, what's going on?" Peorth called as she entered the house and noticed the commotion in the kitchen.

Belldandy looked up as the other goddess approached. "Peorth san! Good! Bring me that bowl of water on the counter. Neesan, we'll need Farragut's Extract to draw out the rot."

Peorth picked up the water as Belldandy continued issuing orders like an ER nurse. As she came closer, she could see the right side of the man's face, the patch obscuring most of it. It wasn't until she nearly three feet away that she could see the other side.

She froze.

The bowl slipped from her rapidly numbing fingers toward the linoleum floor. In the brief second between the bowl beginning its fall and it striking the ground, every moment of every memory from a thousand years ago came rushing out of her long-term memory as if it happened only a moment ago.

The glass bowl hit the floor and shattered. The other two goddesses and the mortal looked up at her.

Belldandy's eyes went wide at the sight of her friend. Peorth was as white as a sheet. "Peorth san? Are you all right?"

Peorth said nothing.

"Peorth san?"

When the change came, it was instantaneous. One moment Peorth was rooted, frozen to the spot, the next she had pushed Urd out of her way as she rushed to the man on the table, tears streaming from her eyes as she babbled incoherently in French.

"JE SUIS DESOLE! J'AI MENTI!" she sobbed, clinging a the front of his robes. "JE T'AIME! JE T'AIME! JE SUIS DESOLE! JE SUIS DESOLE!"

"Peorth!" Urd cried, pulling the goddess off the man. "What are you doing?!"

The goddess' blubbering degenerated into a soulful wail that threatened to rend Belldandy's heart. Finally, using all of her strength, the elder Norn managed to pry Peorth off the man and drag her into another room.

Belldandy and Keiichi stood there in shock as Peorth's wailing reached for them through the walls.

"J'AI MENTIIIIII!" they heard her scream one last time.

They looked at one another in utter astonishment. They had never seen Peorth succumb to emotion like that.

_Should we go check on her?_ Keiichi asked.

Belldandy hesitated for a moment, but the needs of the wounded man below her took priority.

_Neesan will deal with it._

888

It was like trying to wrestle Slepnir into his paddock in Heaven. Peorth was crazed, blubbering nonsense as she struggled against Urd, who was using every bit of her strength to move her further and further into the bedroom.

Finally, growing weary of the contest, Urd channeled a good deal of power into her slapping hand and let fly!

Peorth's back struck the far corner of the room and fell to the floor. Urd rubbed her hand as the other goddess sat on the floor, breathing as if she had just run a marathon. She stared down at the floor, sobs racking her chest.

"What in the Almighty's name was all that?" Urd asked firmly.

The other love goddess seemed to come more to her senses, covering her eyes with her hand in shame as she wept.

"Peorth?"

"Will he live?" she asked suddenly and, more importantly, lucidly.

Urd had only managed to get a quick look at the demon before Peorth went nuts, but based on what she saw...

"Yeah," Urd told her. "He'll be fine."

Peorth let out a deeply held breath. "Thank you, Almighty," she whispered.

"Look, what's with you and that demon?" Urd demanded, tired of the runaround. When Belldandy was done treating him she could come in here and feed Peorth cookies and tea and hold her hand to her heart's content, but Urd wasn't quite as patient.

"He's not a demon!" Peorth hissed at her. She calmed down a moment later and looked away. "His name is Wynn," she finally said.

Urd folded her arms over her chest. She could tell by the way Peorth said his name just who he was. "By chance, is this the one god you loved with a passion and intensity that a pill-peddling trollop like me could never understand?"

Peorth looked down at the floor, ashamed of the words but standing by them. "Oui."

Urd stepped forward and sat down next to her. "I assume you weren't expecting to see him..."

"I thought he was dead," Peorth whispered hauntingly. She took a breath and considered how much she should say. Urd was a love goddess. If anyone was going to understand, it was her. She had to tell someone. Someone else had to understand what she was going through and why.

"He was a conscript during the Second War Against God," Peorth told her. "And I was still a student, about to choose my role." She smiled. "We were so young, was it really that long ago?"

"So what happened?" Urd asked.

"The typical young lovers stuff," she replied with a half smile. "We had this stupid idea that after the war was over, we'd apply for a guardianship. We'd live in one of the primordial realms where sentient life hadn't developed and just be alone together. And, of course, we talked about marriage... All of it after the war ended."

She took a breath. "A few weeks before the armistice, he came to see me. They had given him a special furlough. And... he told me that they had asked him to be part of a special mission... one that would keep us apart for years... even centuries."

Peorth looked down at the ground and bled a little more. "Spoiled, self-centered bitch that I was back then, I demanded to know how he could think of doing something like that." She looked up at Urd. "The war was _almost over!_ We had all but won! We were this close to fulfilling all of those stupid adolescent hormone-induced fantasies we had talked about." She looked down again in shame. "I thought... I thought he was using it as a way of getting out of his promises. That he had said them to get into my bed."

She paused for so long, Urd thought that was how she was ending the story, but Peorth had more, she just wasn't sure how to say it without bursting into tears.

But weep she did as she went on.

"I told him to get out," she cried. "I cursed him for a coward and told him I wouldn't love a man who would go back on his word. And you know the worst part, cheri? I refused to look at him. I turned my head away as he stood there, shocked and hurt, and I refused to look at him while he walked out the door. I thought he'd change his mind, come back, or that the war would be won and he'd come crawling back home, but instead it was the last time I'd ever see him, and _I wouldn't even look at his face!_"

She tried vainly to wipe her eyes. "Two weeks later, the war ended. The conscripts came home. And he wasn't with them. When the full impact of what I had done finally hit me, I went numb, totally numb. I couldn't _feel_ anything. I guess it was a way of protecting me from myself, because weeks later, _weeks later_, when I finally started to feel again, I started to cry, and I couldn't stop. I just couldn't stop crying. Half of my soul had gone to his death thinking that I had stopped loving him, that I thought he was..."

The goddess couldn't take any more, and she squeezed her eyes shut, tears falling into her lap.

Urd really wished Belldandy was here right now. She was better at the sympathy thing. Urd was good at getting you drunk to get over your problems. Somehow, that just didn't seem appropriate right now...

Finally, she found something to say that didn't feel forced or hollow.

"You should be happy," Urd told her quietly. "You get a second chance. A lot of people don't."

Peorth looked up at her and tried wiping her eyes again.

Urd smiled. "You can be the first thing he sees when he wakes up. And you can tell him how you feel to his face, one on one."

888

"Okay! I got bandages and hydrogen peroxide!" Megumi announced, carrying the shopping bag into the kitchen. She stopped short as she saw Wynn on the kitchen table. "Who the hell is this guy?!" she cried. "Are you guys opening a clinic or something?!"

Keiichi smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "It's a long, confusing story," he told her. "But for now, how about giving me a ride to the school?"

"The school? What for!? It's the middle of the night!"

"I left my bike there."

Megumi shrugged and put on an "eh, screw it," expression. "Sure, come on," she said.

As the two left, Urd stepped out of the bedroom and made her way to where Belldandy and Skuld were standing. Belldandy was checking Wynn's wound, nodding to herself in satisfaction.

"He'll sleep the rest of the night, but I think he'll be okay," she said with a smile. "How is Peorth san?"

"Getting herself together," Urd told her. "It's a long story. The short version is that this..." She pointed at Wynn. "...is Peorths' ex."

"Oh, my!"

"What I don't get is the markings," Urd told her. "These sigils mark a demon first class, special operator's license. If he's a god, what's he doing wearing them? If he's a demon, what's he doing here at all? I hope Frigga can tell us."

888

It didn't take long for Keiichi to return, barely half an hour, in fact, which was about the same time that Peorth finally emerged from the bedroom.

"What did Megumi say?" Urd asked as Keiichi put his helmet away.

"I think the story I gave her should satisfy her," he said. "She seemed eager just to go home and not get entangled in it, to be honest."

They paused as a nervous-looking Peorth approached the sleeping god on the table.

"Are you all right, Peorth san?" Belldandy asked cautiously.

They watched her reach out and take his hand in her own, her gaze never leaving his face.

"How is he?" she asked, all pretenses of arrogance or haughtiness absent from her voice.

Belldandy smiled gently. "He'll sleep through the night, but he'll be fine. I think it would help if you sit with him."

Without a word, Peorth sat to the god's left and squeezed his hand.

Keiichi yawned and looked at the clock. "Well, I think I've had enough for one day."

Belldandy smiled. "Good night, Keiichi san."

He felt a flash of warmth come over him, wondering briefly if it was her emotions or his. Odds were it was simply the sound of her voice.

"Good night," he replied.

As Keiichi walked down the hall, Belldandy basked in the warmth from Keiichi's last unconscious confession. Her voice made him warm inside.

"Okay, he's gone. Spill," Urd ordered.

"Huh?"

"He'll be asleep in a minute which means you can finally share your deep dark secret!" Urd was rubbing her hands in glee.

"Neesan!"

"Come on!" Urd urged her. "You'll feel better if you talk about it."

"I will not!" Belldandy cried in response.

"What? Are you worried because Peorth's here? She's not even paying attention!"

Belldandy ignored her and started tidying up the kitchen before she went to bed.

"Come on!" Urd begged. "Did you once kill a man in Reno just to watch him die?"

The younger goddess ignored her.

"I know it's something! Come on! What did you do? Cheat on your taxes?" Urd joked. "Forgot to bring back a movie rental? Outstanding library books? Kiss another man?"

She saw Belldandy flinch and realized that, without meaning to, she had struck gold.

"Oh my god!" Urd cried, hand over her mouth.

"It's not what you think!" Belldandy cried quickly.

888

The creature listened to their prattlings and snarled to itself in disgust. These goddesses bored it, and listening to them chirp like agitated birds would not relieve his hunger.

It wanted to kill again.

It _needed_ to kill again.

The thrill, the feeling of power over destiny it felt watching the life drain from the eyes of a victim. _That_ was godly power.

Perhaps he could kill one of them now...

The brunette standing over Metheus was turned inward with her own thoughts. She would never see it coming. One moment she would be sitting there, and the next its fangs would be at her throat, drinking her last breath, watching that final spark of realization in her eyes as it dawned on her that she would never see another moment...

It shivered. It wanted to kill so badly. Its master wouldn't let it kill as often as it would like.

Or maybe one of the hens chirping in the other room...

Or the child goddess down the hall...

Or the mortal...

It hissed. Yes, the mortal would be easy. A quick fix just to settle it down.

But no. It would obey its master and remain hidden.

For now...

_To Be Continued..._


	3. Love Your Family

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine, I don't own any of it. The lullaby Peorth sings is "Dodo, l'enfant do." The identity verification between Lind and Wynn is inspired by a very similar exchange in the movie, "By Dawn's Early Light."

**Amants**

**Chapter 3**

**Love Your Family**

Any other time, Peorth would have been listening to Belldandy's explanation with rapt curiosity. Right now, however, she couldn't even harness enough attention to make out Belldandy's words. She was staring down at Wynn, wondering what had happened, what he had gone through.

"What did they do to you?" she whispered in sorrow, studying his eyepatch and the scars around it.

"Well, that's a pretty stupid thing to do," Urd's voice momentarily cut through her musings. A moment later it was gone again and she was alone with him.

Would he even _want_ to see her when he woke up? Or would he turn his gaze from her the way she had turned hers? Would he forgive her?

"How is this _not_ my fault, Neesan?" Belldandy was asking incredulously. Peorth tuned it out and squeezed his hand harder.

_Please, that's all I ask, Almighty,_ she thought. _He doesn't have to still love me. He doesn't have to take me back, just please let him forgive me.._.

She thought of the day they first met. Divinity and Oracles, the first class of the afternoon, when he had brazenly walked up to her as if they had known each other all their lives.

"_Excuse me, I'm sorry to have to do this, but I've run the divining calculations, and it looks like you are _destined_ to have lunch with me."_

_Peorth arched an eyebrow and took the lightpad from his hands. She made a few corrections to his calculations and handed it back._

_He looked over the new numbers and nodded. "Ah, I see," he admitted. "I should have carried the two. So, you're destined to slap me and walk off... Yes, I see now..."_

She smiled and tried not to laugh. Luckily, he was persistent...

The house shook on its foundations for a moment.

"No, Neesan, you kissing Keiichi is _not_ the solution to this problem," Belldandy was saying in deadly earnest.

"Then you're going to have to just tell him," Urd replied. "Personally, I think you're making too much out of this, then again, you're good at that."

"I am not making too much out of it!" Belldandy shot back. "It's my shame, and I had hoped I'd never have to speak of it again. Moder being here only makes it worse..."

Urd snapped her fingers. "That's the ticket! We'll ask Frigga to tell him! I bet she tells that story great!"

Belldandy went white as a sheet. "No!" she cried, all but falling to her knees before Urd. "No! Under no circumstances whatsoever should she even know what's going on!"

Urd arched an eyebrow. "She's a seer," she said deadpan. "Odds are, Belldandy, not only does she already know, but she's probably known for weeks. And you have _nothing_ to be ashamed about!"

Belldandy took a deep breath, her face set and determined. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Neesan," she said quietly. "If you breathe a word of this to Moder _or_ Keiichi... I will tell Moder about the time you left the door open during the rains, and the Fensalir marshes flooded the hall."

Urd stamped her foot. "That's below the belt! You know she's still looking for the person who did that! Of course, it doesn't help that the damn mortals made it part of their myths about her..."

Belldandy was unmoved. "Well?" she asked.

The elder Norn huffed. "Fine."

Her old smile graced Belldandy's face again. "Excellent! In that case, I'm off to bed. Good night, Neesan."

888

Frigga awoke feeling better than she had in days. Sitting up in her futon, she looked down at the burned patch of dress and found a perfectly healed shoulder beneath it, without even a scar to show that anything had touched her skin. Looking to her left, she found Belldandy asleep nearby. Smiling, she rose to her feet and quietly made her way into the hall.

Passing the bathroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and frowned. The battle with the demons, first in The Hedge and then in Hell, had certainly done a number on her clothing. Closing her eyes, she willed herself something new and more Earth-appropriate. Light encompassed her body, and when it faded, she was standing in a blue, ankle-length dress.

_Yes, much better_, she thought.

She entered the kitchen and found Wynn asleep on the table with a young goddess draped over him, fast asleep. The queenly goddess wondered if they were related. Careful not to disturb either of them, she checked Wynn's wound and, satisfied at what she saw, proceeded to the refrigerator.

After all, nothing gets one over a stay in the darkest of realms like pancakes...

888

Peorth stood in a familiar place. It should be, after all, she'd spent a good portion of her younger years in the same apartment overlooking Charity Square. Looking out the window, she pressed her hand against the glass and dropped it a moment later when she saw what was reflected there.

Turning, she saw herself, her younger self. Her ponytail wasn't as long and she wore a modest maroon dress she had liked before her sense of fashion had "matured."

"I don't want to be here," she whimpered softly.

The other her gave no sign of hearing her, she was rushing to the door, opening it and hugging the young god who stood on the other side.

She hadn't had this dream in a very long time.

"How did you get leave again so soon?" her younger self was asking him.

The younger Wynn looked troubled, nervous, something she had not noticed at the time.

"There's something important I have to tell you," he came out and said more bluntly than he had probably meant to. She was sure he had rehearsed what he wanted to say, but faced with her the words had fled him.

Her younger self smiled and sat down in the chair before him. Peorth remembered this part, of course. The cocky young goddess had assumed, with the war ending, that he was about to get down on one knee and she wanted to be in the perfect spot to accept.

"Oui?" she asked, batting her eyes at him.

But he didn't get down on one knee. He bit his lip and braced himself as Peorth watched, trying to soak up every moment of him that she had missed before.

"I've been reassigned," he told her. "To the regular forces."

Her younger self blinked in confusion. "What?"

He took a breath and continued. "I've been asked to go on an important mission," he said. Peorth felt a fresh pang of sympathy, knowing that he must have known how stupid it sounded even to him. "So... It's going to be awhile before I can come back."

"How long?"

"Years," he said quietly. "Maybe centuries."

Her younger self didn't get it. "What are you talking about?" she asked incredulously. "Haven't you seen the info-dates? The demons are in retreat. The only thing left is to find out how much Hild is going to give up. Two more weeks and the war will be over..."

"Not for some of us," he said.

The younger Peorth's face darkened. "What is this?" she asked. "Why are you doing this?" She couldn't believe it. After enduring three years apart on the promise he would return for good, he was leaving for _centuries?_

Peorth tried to get between them, but neither of them could see her. "Don't you say it!" she warned her younger self.

"It's something I have to do," he told her, fighting his own hurt.

"Non!" her younger self said. "You tell them you can't!"

"There's only a handful of gods in Heaven who can even do this mission," he told her. "I happen to be one of them."

"Well, isn't that convenient?" the goddess replied. "And by chance, would Zuriel be another?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" the younger Peorth cried, too angry to care if she made sense or not. "I know how she looks at you, what the others have been saying!"

Peorth tried to take her past self by the shoulders and shake her. "Don't! Don't you dare!"

Instead, the younger goddess crossed her arms over her chest as she fought back tears and collected herself. "Everything you said, everything you promised... It was all just a lie, wasn't it?"

"You know it wasn't," he whispered in shock.

"You never meant any of it," her younger self accused him.

"Stop it! Please!" Peorth cried.

"You milked the whole 'soldier off to war' thing to the hilt," the young woman went on. "And it worked, didn't it? Got you into my bed fast enough, didn't it? And now that the war is over and it's time to make good on your promises, and you'd rather go off with that tart..."

"SHUT UP, YOU STUPID, SPOILED COW!" Peorth screamed at her.

Wynn said nothing. He stood there, bleeding from the wound in his soul as her past self continued to tear into it.

"You can't even tell me the truth. You coward."

"Peorth..."

"Get out," her younger self whispered. "I'll not love a man who would go back on his word."

She turned away from him.

Peorth shook her head. "No..."

Wynn turned to go.

"Look at him!" she hissed at her younger self. "Dammit, look at him!"

Her younger self wouldn't turn back.

Peorth heard the door open and turned just in time to see it close again. "Wynn! Don't go! Ma cheri, don't go!" She pounded on the door, but it wouldn't open again. "Don't go! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Don't go!"

Something growled behind her.

She blinked. This part of the dream wasn't familiar. She turned slowly, expecting to see her past self still sitting there.

It stood next to the chair where her other self had been, but there was no sign of the young goddess. It was at least eight feet tall, covered in pitch-black fur. Bat-like wings were folded behind it. Its eyes locked onto her, and its lips curled up in a sneer, but it made no sound.

Until it hissed at her and leapt forward!

She shrieked in fright and flinched away.

And shook awake a second later. She took several deep breaths and blinked. Wynn's unconscious form still lay below her. She had fallen asleep resting on his chest.

She raised her head and watched curiously as Urd practically skipped past her like a schoolgirl.

"Frigga's making PANCAKES!" the elder Norn squealed giddily.

"Don't hog them, Urd!" Skuld cried from the kitchen.

She looked up as Belldandy stopped at the table and checked Wynn's wound. She offered Peorth a happy smile. "Good as new," she said. "He should wake up soon."

"How do you feel, Peorth san?" Keiichi asked from his spot at Belldandy's side.

"I'm fine, thank you. Soon, you said?" she asked. At Belldandy's happy nod, she bit her lip. "Belldandy, I... I need a favor."

The request threw Belldandy for a moment, but her smile returned a moment later. "Of course!"

"I... I need to borrow a dress," she continued. At their amazed expressions, Peorth rallied. "After all, he hasn't seen me since my sense of fashion fully matured, and given his weakened state, he might not be ready for... er... the full Peorth experience..."

"Of course you can borrow something," Belldandy told her. "What did you have in mind?"

Peorth's eyes cast downward nervously. "Preferably one of your, 'I'm so innocent, I must be hot' numbers."

_She means the blue one,_ Keiichi thought to Belldandy. At her questioning look he nodded. _Definitely the blue one._

"Er... My blue one would look good on you," she offered. "It's in my closet. Please, help yourself."

Keiichi snorted in mild disbelief as Peorth walked off. _Peorth in Belldandy's outfits? What next? Belldandy in hers?_ The thought conjured an image of Belldandy in Peorth's get up, Keiichi realizing too late that with Belldandy standing so close he might as well be shouting it through a bullhorn.

He froze and waited in dread as Belldandy turned to him. She smiled and clapped her hands together. "I would look so adorable!"

The college student breathed a sigh of relief as Belldandy went back to the kitchen.

888

Peorth looked at herself in the mirror and tried to smile. The dress, while comfortable and cute, was still far too much clothing in her estimation. Still, she wanted this to be perfect.

Her thoughts went to the dream. She knew what she saw had been the "abridged version," of their last fight. There had been some doozies in their time together. That's what happened when you put two passionate people together. No matter how much love they had for one another, they were guaranteed to fight like cornered wolves from time to time. That's what it was like sometimes. They would zero in on the most trivial matter for seemingly no reason and before they knew it, she was swearing in French and he was comparing her to her mother.

Something was missing.

It was something she had struggled with when dealing with Keiichi and Belldandy. Both were such docile, balanced people. She sometimes thought what they really needed was a good fight, something to get their passions up, their juices flowing. A good fight would reveal more about themselves to one another than this perpetual dance they were in. Because as bad as fighting was, making up was simply incredible when done correctly... And if there was one thing she and Wynn had thoroughly enjoyed, it was making up...

She knew what it was... Looking around, she found a ribbon that matched the dress and tied it into her hair.

That last fight, though... She hadn't just gone over the line, she had danced on it and set it on fire. Their fights had gotten more serious during the war. Mostly it was because she was so frightened for him, so frightened of losing him that she almost _wanted _to drive him away. It would have been easier if he _had_ been having an affair. After every fight, however, her blood would cool and she would realize that losing him to another woman or losing her to a demon's blade made little difference. Both would take him from her.

She had comforted herself with the fact that she would simply make it up to him when he returned, but he hadn't, and Peorth had lived with the horrifying realization that the man she had loved most had likely gone to his death thinking she thought him a liar and a cheat.

Well, it was time to make good on her promise. She _would_ make it up to him. She _would_ make this right.

And she would start now.

888

"URD! I said stop hogging them!" Skuld cried.

He walked into the kitchen proper where the older goddess promptly offered him a plate of pancakes topped with whipped cream. Nearby, Urd, Skuld and Belldandy were digging in.

"We actually haven't been introduced," Keiichi said, giving Frigga a bow. "I'm K..."

"Keiichi Morisato, Case Number one-one-two-seven-six-three-three-five-dash-R," Frigga told him, cutting him off. "I was hoping to meet you one day."

"Oh yeah?" Keiichi asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Indeed. Given the unique nature of thine wish, some feedback would be helpful."

"Moder actually runs the Goddess Help Line," Belldandy supplied, hearing the confused questions in his mind.

"Well, sure," he said. "I guess that's okay."

"Glorious!" Frigga replied. "Now eat up!"

Keiichi wasn't much of a pancake guy. He pushed the cakes around on his plate for a moment. "So what makes these so good?" he asked.

His head snapped up as the sound of silverware angrily striking a plate ripped through the kitchen. Skuld was glaring at him. He actually took a step back.

"'What makes them so good?'" she repeated. "'What makes them so GOOD?' Each individual buttermilk cake is cooked to perfection with a clockwise swirl of your favorite fruit and an exact equal but opposite, counter-clockwise swirl of chocolate syrup, interspersed with just the right amount of blueberries and chocolate chips, but the secret ingredient is LOVE... dammit!"

There was an awkward silence.

"You should probably just eat the pancake," Urd advised him.

Keiichi started chowing down.

Frigga smiled happily. "I am so looking forward to getting to know you better," she told Keiichi. "I've studied your record very closely."

Keiichi smiled, but for some reason felt panic well up in him. "Is that so?" he asked.

"Indeed! After all, I wouldn't trust my own daughters with just anyone!"

He felt on the verge of running from the room like a spooked rabbit. It didn't make sense. Frigga seemed like a very nice woman, so why was she making him feel this way?

His gaze broke from Frigga's, looking to Belldandy for some kind of comfort, and that's when he realized it.

Belldandy had stopped eating. She was looking at Frigga wide-eyed.

He wasn't panicking. _She was!_

_Belldandy? _he thought to her. _Are you okay?_

Her eyes found his, and she smiled. He felt a flash of warmth from her. _Hai._

He felt the panicked feelings begin to recede. Turning back, he found Frigga still smiling at him.

"Shall we say two o'clock?" she asked.

"Sure," he said with a grin. "Anything I can do to help."

"Splendid," she said. "Wynn should be up and around by then." As she said this, she watched Peorth re-enter the room in a blue, knee-length dress with a white top.

Keiichi blinked. The only other time he had seen Peorth dressed so conservatively was during their "date," when she was trying to convince him to let her grant his "true wish."

"Peorth is really taking this hard," he whispered.

"Hai," Belldandy agreed. "Given the circumstances, it's natural."

"What do you mean?"

Urd answered for her. "The downside of being the divine representation of feminine attributes is that you're often bound by them," she explained. "That's part of who Peorth is. Under all the bluster and arrogance, she's a representative of feminine love. When confronted with the thought that she has somehow violated that representation, she runs back to it and embraces it all the harder."

"I don't think that's it at all," Belldandy told her. "It's obvious that she loves Wynn san very much."

"I didn't say she didn't. I just mean that what we're seeing right now is Peorth being as true to herself as we're probably ever going to see."

She turned to Frigga. "And speaking of which, when are we going to hear exactly who this guy is?"

"Ah, yes, of course," Frigga replied apologetically. "I suppose I should explain."

She hopped up onto the counter and crossed her legs, preparing for a long story. The others stood around her and waited for her to begin.

"Wynn is one of The Seven," she finally said.

"The Seven are a myth," Urd told her flat out.

"The Seven are certainly not a myth," Frigga replied firmly. "Your father doesn't tell me everything, but he does let me sit in the big chair, and I saw them set out on their mission."

"I'm sorry, but who are The Seven?" Keiichi asked, raising a hand as if he was back in class.

"When the last war between the gods and demons occurred, it began with a sneak attack from Hild," Belldandy told him. "We eventually won that war, but there were rumors that seven spies were sent into Hell to make sure that such an attack could never happen again."

Frigga nodded. "The Seven, as they were dubbed, were supposed to sneak into Hell during the confusion of the last retreat and embed themselves into the demons' society. If Hild were to ever mobilize for another strike against Heaven, it was thought that at least one of them would be able to escape and warn us."

"So is that attack going to happen?" Keiichi asked.

"No," Frigga explained. "Over the centuries, all contact with The Seven was lost, and it was assumed that Hild had discovered and sealed them all. Two days ago, I was conducting business in The Hedge and..."

"Business?" Urd asked with an arched eyebrow. "In The Hedge? This business wouldn't happen to include Vili or Ve, would it?"

Keiichi felt a swell of annoyed anger and turned just in time to see Belldandy staring her sister down.

"Urd," the middle Norn said in warning.

Frigga looked at her sadly. "If thou must know, I was visiting Baldr's grave, something I've noticed thou has not done in many a year."

Suitably cowed, Urd cleared her throat. "Please go on."

"As I was saying," Frigga continued. "Hild's Elite Guard ambushed me there and captured me, dragging me into the demon realm for Hild's enjoyment."

"Are you all right? It must have been awful!" Skuld cried.

Frigga patted her hand comfortingly. "Thankfully, I was not there long. Young Wynn was there during my... audience... with Hild, posing as a demon named Metheus..."

"_That's_ Metheus?!" Urd suddenly cried.

Every eye went to her.

"Yes, why?" Frigga asked.

Urd looked very uncomfortable. It was obvious she wanted to say something, but instead cleared her throat and shook her head. "I've just heard the name, that's all."

The older goddess took this explanation at face value. "Anyhow, he convinced Hild not to seal me right away. Then, after she left, he helped me escape. The end."

"So what do we do now, Moder?" Belldandy asked.

"Well, we should contact Heaven as quickly as possible and let Lind know that one of The Seven has been recovered. I imagine she'll want to speak with him as soon as possible."

888

_I'm dead._

The thought echoed in his head even as the light overcame him. He wondered briefly who would meet him on the other side. Gods who came before or gods who came after? Did it really matter?

The last goddess he expected to see looked down at him as his eyes opened.

For a moment, a relieved thrill ran through him. It had all been a dream. All of it. The war, The Seven, living as a demon, the hideous things he had been forced to do, none of it had happened. He was waking up in their bed with his Petite Fleur looking down at him, probably pissed that he had stolen the blankets in their sleep.

Then, the other side of that coin flipped into view. She couldn't be real.

"You're a dream," he whispered weakly.

"Non, mon cheri," she told him, holding back tears.

It wasn't a dream, and neither was she. It had all happened just the way he remembered it.

He swallowed at this realization. "Forgive me," he whispered to her.

Peorth sobbed and held him to her chest, shushing him like she would a squalling baby.

He struggled to stay awake through his fatigue, to wallow in her presence for a few moments longer. The god breathed deep, taking in the smell of roses. He could hear her crying softly as she held him.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean the things I said. I swear I didn't."

She could feel him weakening in her arms. He wouldn't be conscious much longer. "You need to rest," she told him softly. "Sleep now."

"I won't," he told her groggily. "I won't leave you again. Never again."

The goddess shushed him again. "It's all right. I'll be right here. I promise." His head was lolling against her chest as she held him. She held him close and began to softly sing to him.

"_Tout le monde est sage,_

_Dans le voisinage,_

_Il est l'heure d'aller dormir,_

_Le sommeil va bientôt venir."_

From the doorway, Urd watched as Peorth sang to Wynn, knowing that she was intruding and yet unable to break away from the scene.

"Neesan."

She turned to the sound of the whisper and found Belldandy there. As quietly as she could, Urd stepped away from the door, following her younger sister until they were out of earshot.

"Neesan," Belldandy whispered. "What's troubling you? You've been wary ever since Moder's story."

Urd glanced back down the hall to make sure they were alone. "I don't like this," she whispered. "It doesn't fit."

"What doesn't?"

The elder Norn bit her lip and tried to find a good way to explain it. "Hild is many things, but she's no idiot. I'm having a very hard time believing that this god was one of her aides for an entire age without her smelling it. There's more going on here."

"You think it's some kind of plot?"

"I don't know," Urd confessed. "But I'm telling you, it doesn't add up. Frigga said this guy's cover was a demon named Metheus."

"Yes, but I've never heard of him."

"I have," Urd whispered. "I was very young when I left the demon realm to live in Heaven, but even I had heard of Metheus. He was a 'defender of the faith,' a high inquisitor." She paused, and seeing confusion in her sister's eyes she went on. "Kami sama, Belldandy, he hunts traitors, demons who've lost their stomach for 'increasing shares' and start to think about going back. The Seven are the exact reason he existed at all."

"What are you saying, Neesan?" Belldandy asked. "That he's gone rampant?"

This last word was whispered so softly that Urd barely heard it. It was not a word you casually threw around, its implications too severe and long-lasting.

"I'm saying... that maybe we shouldn't be giving this guy the benefit of the doubt so fast."

"Moder trusts him," Belldandy said assuredly. "And Peorth vouches for him."

"Frigga just escaped from Hell by the skin of her teeth, and Peorth isn't exactly in a rational state of mind right now," Urd countered. "Look, I want to believe this guy is exactly who Frigga and Peorth say he is. I really do. But I know Hild. And I have an easier time believing Sayoko will marry a hobo or that Keiichi will sprout wings and fly than I do believing _any_ god flew under Hild's radar for this long. Any other cover, _maybe_. But as a high inquisitor, he would have dealt face to face with her on a daily basis."

Belldandy sighed, disturbed by the logic in her sister's words. "So what would you have us do?"

Urd took a breath. "Call Lind. Now."

888

"Just give me a minute to log into HIM," Belldandy told her, sitting down at Keiichi's computer and entering her password into Heaven's Instant Messenger.

**One-Wing-Flapping is online.**

"Ah! Good! She's on!" She started typing.

**Jeze-Bell: Good morning, Lind. We need you to come down here.**

**One-Wing-Flapping: I'm afraid I can't at the moment. There's a situation. I didn't want to tell you over email, but your mother is missing. You may want to come up here.**

J**eze-Bell: No, she's here. Along with a god you need to speak to.**

**One-Wing-Flapping: Who?**

Belldandy wasn't sure how to reply. If anyone was monitoring, she didn't want them to know one of The Seven was here. She started typing again.

**Jeze-Bell: Let me just say that I can think of Seven good reasons for you to speak to him.**

**One-Wing-Flapping: -  
**

**One-Wing-Flapping: Very well. I'll be down later today. TTYL.**

**One-Wing-Flapping has signed out.**

She signed out and turned back to Urd. "She'll be down later today. In the meantime, we should speak to Moder."

Urd bit her lip. "Not yet. Let's see what Lind has to say first."

Belldandy looked down at the floor. "I do hope you're wrong about him."

"Me too," Urd said softly. "For Peorth's sake if no one else's."

888

"Here, deary. Eat."

Peorth looked up as Frigga pushed a plate of pancakes at her.

"Non, merci, but I'm not hungry."

"Of course you are, hon. Eat," Frigga insisted.

Rather than defy what some would argue was the most powerful goddess in Heaven, Peorth took the plate.

Frigga looked at her with smiling eyes. "He's your mate, yes? Your husband?"

Peorth smiled wanly. "Non. I was hoping he'd apply for the job, though."

"It must have been hard," Peorth sympathized. "Waiting so long for him to come home."

The young woman swallowed. "Yes," she said simply. "It was."

Frigga led her into the next room so they could speak without waking him and sat down. "May I ask you something work-related without you getting into trouble with Freya?"

Peorth came up short. It was true that she worked for a rival organization, but she couldn't imagine Freya becoming cross with her... depending on what Frigga asked, of course.

"I suppose so," Peorth told her, taking a seat across from the older goddess and taking a bite of pancake.

Frigga rested her chin in her hands and smiled devilishly. "Has Belldandy granted his wish yet?"

Peorth put the plate down and folded her arms over her chest, smiling smugly. "How would I know? Why not ask her? Or him?"

"Oh, I intend to ask Mr. Morisato all about it, but you're an outside observer as close to impartial as I'm going to get."

The younger goddess thought on it for a moment. "Very well. I'll go as far as to say this: Belldandy is never aware that she is or isn't granting his wish. And by being that way, she is indeed granting it."

Frigga smiled.

"Do you understand?" Peorth asked her.

"Not at all."

The younger woman's eyebrow twitched. "You really are her mother," she bit out quietly. She stood up. "Thank you for the pancakes."

As she walked back toward the kitchen, her steps faltered. Frigga turned to face her.

"What is it?"

"He's gone!" Peorth gasped.

888

The sound of his boots on the wood of the back deck seemed to fit with the rest of what he was seeing. The sun was shining on the plants and trees... a sun... a real sun, not the orange glow from magma flows or torches, but bright white light. He had seen other realms, of course, but almost always at night to... to make it easier to do the things that had to be done.

He heard movement to his right and turned. A young goddess was sitting on the porch, fully involved in working on a hand-held computer while her legs dangled an inch above the ground.

Her fingers stopped moving as she sensed him there. Skuld looked up and saw him standing over her.

"Is this Heaven?" he asked her. "Are we home?"

"Um... No," she told him gently as she stood up. His scarred face intimidated her a little, but she stood her ground. "This is Earth."

He seemed to think about this for several moments. Skuld watched him skeptically. "Um... Are you okay?" she asked.

"Wynn?!"

He turned and found Peorth and Frigga standing in the doorway. "So it wasn't a dream," he said. "You're really here."

Peorth adjusted her stance, not sure whether to run to him or keep her distance. "Oui," she said softly. "Wynn..."

His eye tracked her cautiously, but his face betrayed no emotion.

Frigga and Skuld stood off to the side and watched with rapt interest.

"You... You look good," he told her.

"You look..." She caught herself smiling. "You look awful," she admitted.

Wynn cleared his throat and self-consciously fingered his eyepatch. "Comes from living in a rough part of town."

"I... I don't suppose it's fake..." she asked.

"No... It's a long story..."

"Wynn... I..."

Frigga couldn't stand it anymore. "KISS HIM, YOU WHINNYING NINNY OF A WOMAN!"

In two steps she was there, with barely enough time to breathe the word, "Cheri," before wrapping her arms around him and kissing him fiercely.

The godly queen clapped excitedly. "I do love happy endings!"

888

"Well, it looks like Peorth and what's-his-name are going to be okay," Keiichi said as he and Belldandy watched the scene from the other side of the courtyard.

"Hai!" she replied happily.

He felt her joy wash over him. It was one thing to be glad things worked out, but it amazed him just how much happiness she took from the happiness of others. It was no wonder she worked a job granting wishes to people. She seemed so right for it.

She glanced down at the ground. "Hai, I do take great pleasure from granting wishes," she told him, reading his thoughts. "I like making people happy."

_You've always made me happy,_ he thought before he could rein it back.

Belldandy smiled softly at him. _And you me._

He caught himself blushing. "Well, I guess that means my meeting with your mom will be a piece of cake, huh?"

A flash of fear struck him.

"What is it?" he asked.

She didn't answer, and he could feel her pushing it out of her thoughts as quickly as possible. "We should go out today," she said instead.

"Huh?"

"Hai! It's a beautiful, warm day! We shouldn't stay cooped up in the house!"

"Belldandy..."

"We could go to the movies! Or... Or to the Auto Club!" She flailed for something to tempt him into leaving. "We could go swimming!"

The reaction was so intense, she could both see and feel it in her mind, an aching, freezing chill seized her bones, and she couldn't breathe, but it passed a moment later.

"Are you okay?!" he asked.

The goddess looked up at him. She must have looked worse than she felt, because his concerned look almost scared her by its intensity.

"Hai..."

He smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Belldandy, I'd like to go out today... but I already promised Frigga san I'd meet with her... and... I really don't want to get on her bad side..."

_...in case she's my mother in law som...SHUT UP, KEIICHI!_

They both turned red. "Um... So... I'm going to go inside now..."

"H...Hai..."

He turned and walked off. She could feel how mortified he was at the statement, but couldn't figure out why. After all, she just assumed that one day...

She didn't have time for this. Keiichi was going to meet with her mother in less than an hour.

"I may have to set fire to the house," she said to herself, only half meaning it. "Oh, if only it were so easy."

888

"So..." Skuld began conversationally. "When are they going to stop?"

Frigga checked her timepiece as Peorth and Wynn continued to kiss. "That, my dear, is a very good question."

They watched for another minute, the two giving no indication they were going to stop.

"We have a hose," Skuld informed Frigga helpfully.

"That seems unromantic somehow," her mother argued.

They continued watching.

"Maybe you should both give them some privacy," Urd suggested, taking mother and daughter by the ear and pulling them inside the house. "How would you feel to be watched like that?"

"Your sister is quite right!" Frigga told Skuld as she pulled away from her stepdaughter's fingers. "For shame."

"Urd, I notice you're holding a video camera," Skuld pointed out.

By now Urd was in the spot they had vacated, taping Peorth and Wynn. "Yes, it's good to notice things," Urd told her.

Before Skuld could protest, a kitchen knife sitting in its rack on the counter shook slightly. Then, slowly, it rose from the rack as if being pulled by an invisible hand and stood on the tip of its blade until the sunlight from the window reflected in it. From this reflected light, a form began to take shape, growing and reforming until a tall, lithe woman stood before them.

Turning, she gave a short bow to Frigga. "Milady, it's good to see you're safe."

"Why thank you, Lind! It's good to see you as well!"

Lind looked from side to side. "Have you seen my aide-de-camp?"

"Your what?" Skuld asked.

Before Lind could elaborate, a tall blonde woman walked in from the hallway, coughing. "When was the last time you used that radio?" she asked. "The speakers are filthy!"

"Milady, Urd, Skuld, this is my aide-de-camp, Gaeriel," Lind introduced them. "Gaeriel is in the final stage of her training and is shadowing me for this block of instruction."

"It's nice to meet you," Gaeriel said with a bow.

"Where is he?" Lind asked them directly. "And which one is it?"

"He's on the porch," Urd told her. "Guy named Wynn."

"And you're certain he's one of The Seven?" she asked.

Frigga nodded. "He gave the proper code stanza."

"And Peorth knows him," Skuld supplied.

"Take me to him, please," Lind requested.

888

She had to clear her throat three times before finally the two parted.

"I missed you too," Wynn told Peorth.

Lind cleared her throat a fourth time, and the two lovers turned to her. The Combat Division commander sized him up critically. She took a few steps around him, instinctively bracketing him between herself and Gaeriel.

"Day word," she demanded.

"Kingdom," he answered immediately.

"Command word?"

"Trinity."

"Action word?"

"Phoenix," he finished.

"Before you left Heaven you were given a card with several alpha-numeric sequences on it and told to memorize the entire thing," Lind told him.

"That's right," he told her.

"First line, upper right hand corner, please recite the last four."

Wynn paused for a moment.

"He's still not fully recovered," Peorth argued on his behalf, but she needn't have bothered.

"One, seven, oh, five," he told her.

"O for what?" she pressed.

"Omicron," he answered.

"Third line, second set, the first four, please."

"Seven, four, one, D," he recited.

"D for what?"

"Dammit!" Peorth answered for him, pushing herself between them. "He saved Madame Frigga's life! He's answered all your little code words! What else does he have to do? Do the Madison? Recite my measurements?"

"This is an issue of the highest security," Lind explained calmly. "To ensure that he is who he claims to be."

"He _is_ who he claims to be," Peorth told her. "A lover knows!" she added proudly.

Lind arched an eyebrow. "Is that so?" She considered this for a moment and turned her attention back to Wynn. "Very well. I understand you're recovering from an injury, but it's important to debrief you immediately to make use of whatever information you can give us before Hild makes changes to her operations."

He nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

Lind turned to Urd. "We need a room."

888

Keiichi and Belldandy entered the house just as Lind was leading Wynn and Gaeriel into another room, shutting the door tightly behind them.

"Well, while they're doing that, it's time for our little meeting, Mr. Morisato," Frigga announced. "Shall we adjourn to the kitchen?"

"Sure," Keiichi agreed, following the older woman into the next room. As they sat down at the table, he turned and nearly jumped when he noticed Belldandy had followed them there.

"Belldandy dearest," Frigga said with a questioning tone. "You know the granting goddess isn't supposed to be in these sessions."

The goddess smiled uncomfortably. "Hai, but I felt there may be issues I might be able to explain more fully than Keiichi san."

Frigga took on a disapproving tone. "Belldandy, really," she began. "I can't bend the rules... even for my own daughter. You'll have to wait outside. Go on. Shoo!"

_Belldandy, it'll be okay,_ he sent to her. _Really._

She smiled at him but didn't reply as she rose and left the kitchen like a woman going to her own funeral.

As the door shut, Frigga smiled at him. "She's always been a perfectionist." She produced a clipboard and pen from seemingly nowhere. "Let's begin, shall we? Name?"

"Keiichi Morisato."

"Mo...ri...sa...to," she sounded out as she scribbled on the clipboard. "And, for the record, your exact wish?"

"That a goddess like Belldandy would always be by my side," he said warmly and confidently.

"That's so sweet," Frigga said as she scribbled. "And when you made that wish, what did you think it meant?"

This question caught Keiichi off-guard. "I... I don't understand."

"What I'm getting at is, are the way things are now what you envisioned when you made that particular wish?"

"Well... No," he said honestly. "I mean, I couldn't have imagined, for instance, Belldandy's sisters coming to live here or being attacked by the Lord of Terror or any of a hundred other things, but when I made that wish... I really was just speaking off the cuff. I wasn't even sure Belldandy was real at that point."

"I see," Frigga replied as she made notes. "So what role does the granting goddess... That's Belldandy... play in your household?"

"Role?"

"Is she your maid?" Frigga asked.

"No... But she does do more than her share of the housework..."

"Your cook?"

"Well, she does cook, but I don't think..."

"Nurse?"

"Um..."

Frigga just looked at him expectantly.

"Well... Look, I mean she does all of those things, but I don't think of her like that..."

"Ah," she said, looking down at her notes. "Lover?"

Keiichi choked just a bit and turned a deep crimson. "Huh?!"

Frigga gave him a serious look. "Is Belldandy your lover? Does she warm your bed at night? Provide for you the kind of care and comfort that only one who knows you intimately can? Are you sleeping with my daughter, good sir?"

He started to sweat. "N...no, Ma'am!"

"Hmmm." She scribbled some more notes while he continued to stew.

"But you want to," she noted, glancing up at him.

"EHHH?!"

"You're saying you do not?"

"I'm not saying anything!" he defended.

"That much is certain..." She took pity on him a moment later. "Please, relax, Mr. Morisato. I am not trying to hector you or intimidate you. I am simply trying to ascertain that you are receiving the most out of your wish. Unfortunately, the way you worded it leaves it very open to individual interpretation, so if there is anything you thought you would get out of this wish and haven't, now is the time to speak up."

There was enough innuendo in the statement to even clue in a guy as dense as him.

Keiichi swallowed. "Ms. Frigga, I don't know what kind of guy you think I am, but I have to say that if you think I'm the kind of person who would use a wish like that, something I know Belldandy takes very seriously, as a way to get her to take her clothes off... well... I find that very insulting."

"Mr. Morisato," she said gently. "A guy like that wouldn't have received a wish to begin with. And you make the assumption that Belldandy would not grant such a thing otherwise. She's obviously quite taken with you."

"If it happens because of the wish, I'd rather it not at all," he told her.

"Very good," she replied. "You really do love her, don't you?"

He swallowed again.

"You respect her," Frigga went on. "As a person. The fact that she's a goddess hardly even registers with you anymore, does it?" She sat back and smiled.

"This isn't about quality control, is it?" he asked.

Frigga smiled. "Quite the contrary, Mr. Morisato. It's very much about quality control. Just not the way you think. And as wonderfully carnal as most mortal men are, I have to say I still find you preferable to..." She trailed off and looked as if she had said too much. "Well... Preferable to some. Shall we continue?"

888

Just outside, Belldandy and Peorth paced past one another, each wearing anxious looks as they thought about what was being said behind closed doors.

"Imagine," Peorth huffed as she passed Belldandy again. "After everything he's been through, they're treating him more like an enemy than a hero."

"What is she telling him?" Belldandy muttered. "Moder has always had trouble keeping things to herself..."

"At least you can peek into his mind and find out," Peorth told her, not even raising her head to look at the other goddess.

"That would be wrong," Belldandy corrected her as they passed one another again. "Whether I like it or not, it's a private conversation."

Peorth muttered angrily as she shook her head and paced. "How long are they going to grill him?"

"I'm sure they're treating him with the utmost respect and deference," Belldandy assured her as they passed again. "Lind is a professional, and she is more than aware of the kind of hardships Wynn san had to endure."

"She'd better."

Belldandy didn't answer. She was trying to interpret the emotions roiling within her, only half of which were her own. She knew for a fact that Keiichi had, at alternating stages, felt embarrassed, insulted, mortified, and genuinely puzzled. What was her mother doing in there?

The kitchen door opened, and a sheepish-looking Keiichi walked in. "Hi," he said lamely.

"Keiichi san! Is everything all right?!"

Frigga entered a moment later. "Hell's bells, Belldandy, we just talked a little. I didn't rake him over hot coals."

"It went well," Keiichi told her.

Instead of replying, Belldandy took his hand and pulled him outside. Frigga sighed.

"If those two loved each other any more..." she muttered.

"Well don't look at me," Peorth told her. "I've been working my ass off with those two." She tapped her foot nervously and, more to distract her than anything else, turned back to Frigga and asked, "So, did you find out anything useful?"

Frigga smiled knowingly. "He's desperately in love with her, respects her, and holds her in the highest regard."

"That's not exactly new information," Peorth told her.

"No, but the source is," Frigga replied. "It's one thing to hear from someone else, it's quite another to see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice when he says her name. That is what I was looking for."

"And?" Peorth pressed.

"And... It only confirms something I've known for quite some time."

"Which is?"

"That they will be last to know."

888

"Belldandy! What's wrong?!" Keiichi asked as the goddess all but dragged him into the courtyard.

Finally, she turned to him, her face a mask of frank concern. "What did she say to you?" she asked.

"What? She just asked a bunch of questions about... well..." He suddenly became very reluctant.

"I'm going to look," Belldandy declared, closing her eyes and entering his mind. To her surprise, she found an angry wall crashing down in front of her. Gasping, she opened her eyes again and saw Keiichi's annoyed face.

"Belldandy, I know our minds are moving closer and closer, but that doesn't mean we should just barge into them whenever we feel like. Your mother and I talked about a bunch of things, and maybe I just don't feel comfortable talking about them until I've had time to think about them."

He felt a wave of embarrassment smash into him, and Belldandy looked down at her feet. "You're right," she said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Belldandy, what's bothering you?" he asked. He resisted the urge to be a hypocrite and look into her thoughts for the problem. "What is it you think your mother told me?"

He saw a sudden flash of a man's face in his mind. Belldandy looked at him, and he could feel the guilt practically dripping from her.

"Belldandy?"

She couldn't lie to him, so she didn't. Instead, she ran off.

"Belldandy!" he called after her.

She didn't turn back.

"What the hell is going on here?!" he cried at the sky.

888

There was no preamble, the door simply opened, and Lind and Gaeriel walked out.

"Well?" Peorth demanded as they approached.

Lind paid her no mind. "How did he strike you?" she asked Gaeriel.

Peorth simply stood there, amazed at how totally ignored she was.

"Urbane, sophisticated, attractive" Gaeriel told her. She hesitated a moment. "Reluctant... shrouded."

"Excuse me! What's going on?!" Peorth demanded again.

"Allow me, child," Frigga said, pushing her way between them. "Commander..."

Lind turned to them. "We're finished," she announced. "I'm returning to Heaven to put this information to use. Gaeriel will remain here."

"That seems a little unnecessary," Frigga told her. "We'll all be returning to Heaven shortly, after all."

The tiniest bit of discomfort passed through Lind's eyes. "You, of course, may return to Heaven at your convenience, Milady," she said simply.

Frigga wasn't stupid enough to miss what wasn't being said. "But..." she prompted.

Confused, Peorth looked from one goddess to the other. "What's going on?"

"Commander," Frigga prompted again.

Determined to stand firm, Lind rallied and made her pronouncement. "Lance Corporal Wynn will not be returning to Heaven."

"Quoi?!" Peorth cried.

Frigga raised a hand, silencing her and calmly turned her gaze back to Lind. "Commander, I must say, this is unexpected. His rather heroic exploits aside, you are aware that Hild's agents are undoubtedly hunting him even as we speak."

"I am aware of that," Lind told her. "That is one reason why Gaeriel will remain."

"You are going through a great deal of trouble to _not_ say something," Frigga told her. "What is it?"

Lind nodded and made a decision. "Very well. I did not wish to speak of this in front of his loved ones, but so be it." She paused for a moment, unused to tact and finally deciding to just ignore it. "I don't want him in Heaven yet. He's spent more than a thousand years as a demon, and before I allow him back in, I need to be certain he hasn't gone rampant."

The word rocked Peorth on her heels. She gritted her teeth and lashed out, the palm of her hand striking the valkyrie's left cheek. Lind didn't seem to notice.

"How _dare_ you?!" Peorth hissed. "You conscripted him! You _made_ him fight! You put him on this assignment! _You sent him to Hell!_ And now, that he's actually beaten the odds and come back _mostly_ in one piece, you _won't even let him go home?!_"

Lind didn't reply. She knew there was no good way to answer.

Peorth shook in rage. "Rampancy?! Even _implying_ it brands him as a traitor!"

"It's temporary," Lind told her calmly. "Gaeriel will observe him and look for the symptoms. If he's still... himself... I'll come back and escort him back to Heaven myself. But I have to be _certain_. Even one rampant god loose in Heaven could cause an infinite amount of mischief before a suitable force could be gathered to stop him."

Peorth, tears of rage pooling in her eyes, looked like she wanted to take another swing at the valkyrie, but Frigga took her by the shoulders and spoke softly but firmly to her.

"My dear, I think it would be best if you went to the ladies' room, dried your eyes, prettied yourself up a bit and went to your mate now."

The younger goddess looked about to argue, but Frigga stopped her with her next words.

"Right now he's going to need you more here than you need him in Heaven. Go on."

Peorth gave Lind one last acidic look and turned on her heel, heading toward the bathroom.

Frigga watched her go and turned back to Lind. "You understand," she said quietly. "I owe that god my life, and I will not sit still for this. That young man deserves better. He deserves _much_ better."

"Milady, I want you to be right," she said, conceding without backing down. "I really do. He was reluctant to answer some questions about his activities in Hell, and there's a..." She struggled to find a good way to word it. "There's an edge in him," she finally said. "A cruel edge... just beneath the surface. I can sense it there. I don't pretend to understand the things he must have gone through. But I do know the kind of demons Hild keeps close to her. And if he was one of them, then I shudder to think of the kinds of things he had to do to maintain his cover, and I _weep_ for what it must certainly have done to his spirit."

Frigga could feel the truth in Lind's words as the valkyrie's mask cracked ever so slightly.

"I am not unsympathetic," Lind continued. "As a valkyrie, it rends my heart to do this to another avenging angel. They should _all_ be able to come home. Every last one of them. But my oath... is to defend Heaven... And he stays down here."

She turned to go.

"And what if you're right?" Frigga asked softly, as if afraid of the answer.

Lind paused mid-step. "That's the other reason Gaeriel will stay," she said. "If I _am_ right..." She trailed off, the words themselves unspeakable. Finally, however, she found the strength to utter them.

"If I am right, Gaeriel will put him down."


	4. Love Your Home

Disclaimer: I don't own AMG.

**Amants**

**Chapter 4**

**Love Your Home**

He sat cross-legged on the floor of Keiichi Morisato's room, staring at the wall yet gazing inward. Lind and Gaeriel had left nearly ten minutes before, but he wasn't feeling up to leaving the room just yet. He had done his duty, given them all the information he had on demonic operations, but it wasn't enough.

They weren't going to let him go home.

In the Demon Realm, he had always been very cautious. He couldn't even dream of home. If a strong enough demon wandered by while he did so, he would be compromised. That's how they got Zuriel. She just couldn't keep her family from her thoughts, and a Category Eight demon caught her at it.

They...he... they... had tortured her for six days, demanding to know the identities of the others. Hild, of course, knew there were spies in Hell just as Lind must have known there were spies in Heaven. Zuriel, to her credit, having compromised herself, refused to compromise anyone else.

Wynn had done the only thing he could at the time. He "interrogated" her... and then "accidentally" lost control of his emotions and killed her. She made it six days without speaking, but Wynn knew they could have easily dragged it out to a hundred.

They had before.

Lind had appeared sympathetic, but a part of him wondered if this was a punishment for him.

"Hey."

He looked up and found Peorth standing in the doorway. Her face told him everything he needed to know.

"She told you," he surmised.

"Oui," she whispered. "Cheri, I'm so sorry."

"They are doing what they must," he told her, an ounce of bitterness entering his voice.

"It's utter nonsense," she growled. Remembering what Frigga had said, she found a smile and took his hand. "But it doesn't matter. You're with me, and that means you're home."

His lip turned up in a half-smile, but it wasn't convincing. Peorth put on a faux-pout in response.

"There was a time, I remember, when you would claim that _I_ was all you needed in Creation," she told him. "Have I really depreciated that much? Will you look for a younger model?"

This time his smile was more genuine. "Hardly. You look no older than the day I met you."

"Bonne reponse!" she cried happily. "I was afraid those demons had leached all those smooth moves out of you!"

He still wasn't willing to do much more than smile, and she resolved to change that starting now.

"Come with me," she ordered, pulling on his hand. "There's so much to tell you."

888

Gaeriel walked Lind to the kitchen where her travel medium waited.

"I am going to close the outgoing hardlines from here," Lind told her. "But the demon lines will still be open. Remain vigilant."

"Yes, Ma'am," Gaeriel replied.

"If he displays the signs of rampancy, you may not have time to call for assistance," Lind warned.

"Don't worry, Ma'am," Gaeriel told her. "If it comes to that, I'll pop him myself."

A flash of anger marred Lind's features. She took a step toward the aide, and Gaeriel stepped back reflexively.

"This is no enemy, Gaeriel," Lind told her dangerously. "Nor is he a horse with a broken leg. This god is a legend. No valkyrie was ever asked so much of as was asked of The Seven. Out of every candidate screened, thousands upon thousands of valkyries, only they were determined to have that special element in their makeup that made that mission possible. And they _will_ be respected."

Gaeriel swallowed and nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

"This is a sad day, Gaeriel," Lind reminded her. "And nothing but."

888

He found Urd sitting in front of the TV, cheering on her favorite anime superhero.

"That's right!" she yelled at the TV. "Knock that asshole OUT!"

Keiichi was beyond small talk at this point. "Urd, what's going on with Belldandy? She's been acting really weird lately."

Urd didn't even look up from the TV screen. "Sorry," she said quickly. "Sworn to secrecy."

"Oh, come on!" Keiichi cried. "I know you know what's going on!"

The Norn made a couple of punching motions in the air and essentially ignored the young man. Finally, she waved his concern aside. "Don't worry, it's stupid."

"She seems to think it's a big deal," he told her. "She wanted to put the mind-whammy on me to get me to tell her if Frigga said anything weird to me."

Urd arched an eyebrow. "Did she?"

"Yeah, I mean..."

"No, I mean Frigga. Did she tell you anything... interesting?"

"Why does everyone think that me and Ms. Frigga had some kind of earth-shattering conversation chock full of surprise revelations?" he asked. "Isn't it within the realm of possibility that she asked about mundane stuff and I gave her boring answers?"

"With Frigga?" Urd asked. "What are you, stup...OH CRAP! DID YOU SEE THAT?!" she screamed, pointing at the TV.

Keiichi sighed.

"Look, what are you worried about anyway?" Urd asked him. "In a day or so you're not going to be able to keep her memories out of your head. Then you'll know all about it."

"That's not the way to find out," he chastised her. "Whatever it is, it's upsetting her a lot. It's not going to make it better if she's forced to share it with me."

She shook her head. "You mortals. You all think that destiny is something you can just change or sidestep. Some things you just don't have a choice in. It is what is. Just roll with it."

"'Just roll with it?'" he asked. "That's your advice?"

"No, my advice would be to make it easy for her."

"Huh?"

"Just a second," she said, turning her attention back to the screen. "Oh... Oh, don't you kiss her," she cried at the screen. "MISA IS AT HOME RIGHT NOW MAKING YOU DINNER, YOU TWO-TIMING ASSHOLE!"

"Urd, your advice?"

"Huh? Oh, right. Look, I can't say specifically what it is, but I can tell you that whatever it is involves a good deal of guilt," she said. "So get ahead of the train. Confess something to her first. Let her know it's okay to... Oh... you SLUT!" she shouted at the TV.

"Thanks, Urd... I guess," Keiichi sighed. He left the room, the sounds of Urd raging futilely at the TV echoing behind him.

He wanted to know, but more importantly he wanted to help Belldandy with whatever she was dealing with. It obviously bothered her quite a bit. He thought about asking Frigga, but if Belldandy's big fear was something she'd tell him, then maybe asking the elder goddess wasn't the best course.

Urd said it involved guilt. Guilt about what?

She was obviously willing to tell Urd, so it was him specifically she didn't want to find out.

It gnawed at him. What was she hiding? Why was it bothering her?

_Belldandy?_ he called out with his mind. _Can you hear me?_

At first he thought they were too far apart or that he wasn't doing it right, but then, after several moments, he heard a meek, _Hai..._

He bit his lip and concentrated his thoughts. _Are you okay?_

_Hai_, she replied after another few moments.

_Where are you?_

He saw an image of trees and gathered that she was in the small grove behind the residence.

_Belldandy, I don't know what's wrong, but I want to help. Whatever it is, I promise it can't be that bad._

He felt an upswell of guilt and despair from her.

_Urd says it's stupid,_ he tried.

_NEESAN TOLD YOU?!_

_No!_ he replied quickly. _She just said it wasn't a big deal, so I don't understand why..._

_Keiichi san, please,_ she begged. _I don't want to talk about it. Neesan doesn't understand._

_Okay,_ he relented. _I won't bring it up again. I promise._

He could feel a little bit of relief flow into him from her mind.

_Will you stop hiding now?_ he asked her.

The door to the bathroom opened a few feet from him and Belldandy stepped out.

"I thought you were outside?" he said in puzzlement.

She shook her head. "When you asked, I just pictured some trees in my mind. I couldn't see you yet."

He was about to ask why, but remembered his promise and instead looked away. "I see," he said simply.

"No you don't, and I'm sorry," she said.

"It's okay," he said, but it didn't take telepathy to tell Belldandy the lack of trust hurt him.

888

His conversation with Belldandy had done nothing to help alleviate his concern and had the added benefit of leaving a heavy cloud over them both. He knew Belldandy didn't like it either, but she seemed so scared of whatever it was that was bothering her. The guilt in the air was palpable.

So involved with his own thoughts, he didn't notice Wynn standing on the front step as he walked outside. When he finally noticed him, he jumped.

"Wynn san," he said. "I didn't see you there."

The god didn't answer, too engrossed in his own thoughts. A lit cigarette burned slowly in the fingers of his left hand.

"We haven't met," he went on. "I'm Keiichi, Keiichi Morisato."

Wynn regarded him silently for a moment. "Wynn," he told him simply. "Thank you for taking me in," he added quietly.

"No problem," Keiichi said with a smile. "Any friend of Peorth's..."

Wynn didn't reply, taking a drag on his cigarette.

"Where is Peorth, anyway?"

"She said she wanted to change," Wynn told him. He held the pack of smokes out to him.

Keiichi bit his lip. "I haven't smoked in two years," he said. "I don't want it."

"I've spent the last thousand years as a demon tempting people with their darkest desires," Wynn told him. "Trust me, you want a cigarette."

"Dammit," Keiichi muttered, admitting defeat and taking a lucky out of the pack. With everything going on recently, he needed one.

He patted his jacket pockets before realizing he hadn't carried a lighter in two years. "Get a light off yours?" he asked.

Wynn snapped his fingers, and a small lick of flame sprung from between his fingers. Keiichi leaned over and lit up, taking a deep breath and releasing a puff of smoke.

He closed his eyes and savored it. "Okay, you were right," he admitted.

"Usually am," Wynn told him.

"So," Keiichi began, unsure of how to start a conversation with the withdrawn god. "You must be excited to be going home, huh?"

Of course, with his own problems kicking him while he was down, he hadn't known about Lind's decision.

Wynn gave no sign of anger or anguish. He merely shook his head. "No, I'm staying for awhile."

"Oh?"

He nodded and took a drag. "Sorry to impose," he rasped.

Keiichi shrugged. "Actually, I think it would be nice to have another guy around here. Sometimes I feel really out of place. Kind of weird considering I'm actually _from_ this world."

"Yes," Wynn remarked. "It can be pretty lonely."

Keiichi realized his problems must sound pretty stupid to a god who'd literally spent the last thousand years surrounded by beings that would kill him if they found out what he was.

"Sorry," he said quietly.

"Hild wants your soul, you know," Wynn told him quietly.

The revelation threw him for a moment. "Mine? Why?"

Wynn let out a puff of smoke. "Because of what it would do to them," he said, gesturing to the house. "To your girlfriend. Hild isn't so much interested in you as she is Belldandy."

"Why?"

The god took a deep drag before answering. "Because of who she is, who her father is. Who Urd is. It always pissed her off that her daughter went to live in Heaven. She feels it appropriate that Belldandy come live in Hell. Fair's fair and all that."

The statement forced a chill up Keiichi's spine. He decided to change the subject and latched onto the first thing that came to mind.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked.

Wynn nodded.

"Has... Has Peorth ever kept things from you? Secrets?"

"Of course," Wynn said immediately, stunning Keiichi.

"And... That's okay?" he prodded.

Wynn took a drag and nodded. "I'm no love god," he told him. "But I did take Theory of Romance one semester so I could look at Peorth's legs, so there's one thing I know for certain, and it's a mistake a lot of people make. Women..." He looked for a good way to phrase it. "You can't think of women as men who are built differently. They are an entirely different creature. They think differently than men do. They won't tolerate us to keep secrets, but they feel fully comfortable keeping their own. Things that we believe perfectly natural they lose their minds over."

"But what about when it's something important?" he asked.

Wynn shrugged. "Then trust her." He gave the mortal boy a once over. "Unless, of course, it's a trickster goddess... or a goddess of lust... They're hard to trust."

"I don't know," Keiichi said. "I've never seen Belldandy like this. She's positively terrified I might find out whatever it is."

"So don't find out," Wynn advised.

"That's going to be difficult. It's... a long story," Keiichi told him. "But even so..."

"Even so," Wynn interrupted. "You have to check your priorities. Where does finding out this terrible secret rate?" He shrugged. "If it can keep peace and soothe her, it might be worth it just to leave it. Men have done worse to keep peace."

"What do you mean?"

Wynn regarded him for a moment before answering. "It's a time-proven, fundamental law, Keiichi, that the overwhelming majority of men are willing to give their _lives_ for the love of a good and chaste woman. You want to keep Belldandy? I don't even have to know what this secret is to know that the answer is to cut her some slack and let this one go."

Before Keiichi could reply to this, Peorth stuck her head out from around the corner. Seeing the two men distracted, she turned the corner, took two long steps and threw her arms around Wynn.

"So what do you think?" she asked, stepping back so he could get a good look at her usual outfit.

He cleared his throat, his face taking on a darker and darker shade of red as the seconds went by.

"Well?" Peorth pressed, lowering her voice an octave and packing as much innuendo into as she could into a four letter word.

"You've... Your sense of style has... evolved," he noted.

"I've become more comfortable with my body over the years," she purred.

"A real draw with the guys, huh?" he asked.

She reached up and pulled the cigarette from his lips. "Never," she told him quietly. "There's never been anyone who could ever take your place."

He looked down at her as she placed the smoke back in his mouth. "You want to go catch up?"

888

_Where are they?_

With a cry of triumph, Urd reached up and snatched the pair of fake, furry panda ears from the top of her potions cabinet. Placing them on her head, she grinned and started for the door.

Just as she was about to step across the threshold, her stepmother stepped into view.

"Ah! Urd! I was just coming to see you!"

"Sure, Frigga," Urd replied, trying to find a way past her. "Can we make it fast, though? Go Go Happy Pan..."

"I want to talk to you about young Peorth," Frigga told her. "I'm concerned about her."

"Why?" Urd asked. "At least she's getting some ac..." She remembered who she was speaking to just in time and finished, "...actual time with her boyfriend!"

Frigga's face turned sad in an expression very much like the one Belldandy liked to wear when she was pouting for something she wanted. "Reunification with a long-estranged loved one can be a very difficult time for a woman," Frigga told her. "I'd like you to keep an eye on her, be there for her. You're her friend..."

"I am?! Since when?!"

"Urd," Frigga told her in a warning tone.

The love goddess sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll look after her. No problem."

Frigga clapped her hands together and smiled brightly. "Splendid!"

"Great," Urd agreed deadpan. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Frigga stepped aside and let the younger woman through. Urd plopped down in front of the television and found the appropriate channel. She was just in time...

"Neesan, what did you tell Keiichi?" Belldandy demanded without preamble as she stormed into the room.

Urd didn't even glance from the TV. "'Go Go Happy Panda' is on," she said simply. "Come back in thirty."

"Neesan, I want to know what you told Keiichi about..." She looked around for eavesdroppers before finishing in a whisper. "...you-know-what."

"I didn't tell him anything," Urd replied, bouncing along to the TV show's theme song. "But you're making a mistake."

"Urd, I mean it," Belldandy said crossly. "I won't tolerate you meddling in this case."

Finally, the love goddess' gaze broke from the TV and locked onto her sister's like a surface to air missile. "Okay, that's it," she said, standing up and trying valiantly to look stern with a pair of fake panda ears on her head. "You want it? Here it is! This is by far the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do!"

"Neesan, it's none of your business!"

"Fine! You can tell yourself that later when you're sobbing into Frigga's skirt!" Urd shot back. "You want a sure-fire way to poison the trust between you and Keiichi, which, by the way, is the strongest bond I've ever seen between two people? Keep doing your best to hide this from him! You know what's worse than someone finding out a dirty secret? It's them finding out _just enough_ to jump to the wrong conclusion!"

Belldandy's fingers curled into fists in frustration.

"Let me ask you this," Urd went on. "What if someone got a glimpse of _me_, just a glimpse, of when I was the Lord of Terror? What do you think they'd assume about _me_ without the proper context? That's what's going to happen to you if Keiichi keeps finding out about this piecemeal! Do yourself a favor! Take him by the hand, sit him down somewhere private and explain it _all_ to him... Before he finds out enough to get the wrong idea."

Belldandy didn't reply. She didn't have to. Urd held her hands up in defeat.

"But you win. I'm out." She turned back to her show and waited for Belldandy to leave.

The middle Norn took a breath and stormed out.

888

"I have to admit, Cheri," Peorth remarked, "When you said we should go 'catch up,' I assumed you meant something more... horizontal."

Sitting on the roof of the temple next to her, Wynn smiled. "What can I say? I'm deep."

"Ah," Peorth replied. The two watched the clouds go by, and finally, Peorth thought they should actually try to catch up. She just wasn't sure how. Tell him about how things have changed in Heaven? That would only remind him that he's not going there. Ask about his time in Hell? That would just bring up painful memories.

There were better, more enjoyable ways of swapping their life stories, of course. Without realizing she had even summoned her, Gorgeous Rose ascended from her back and glided over to the other side of Wynn, a playful and expectant look gracing the angel's face.

Peorth giggled knowingly. "She's looking for Lucky Jack," she noted.

Wynn's face turned distant and sad. "Jack doesn't come out anymore," he said plainly. The puzzled look on Gorgeous Rose's face mirrored Peorth's. "He's spent the last thousand years hiding as deep in my soul as he could. After all this time, he won't come out..."

The look on the angel's face was one of absolute horror. Peorth tried to remain impassive, but the look in her eyes was the mirror image of that in Gorgeous Rose's.

Despondent, the angel retreated back into her host.

_Well, this is going wonderfully,_ Peorth thought to herself. She looked over at him, at the sadness in him and realized she didn't care if it was unpleasant. She needed to know about his life. She wanted to know.

She looked down at her legs then, gathering her resolve, looked back up.

"What happened to your eye?" she asked.

"Do you really want to know this stuff?" he asked her, turning his eye toward her.

She nodded. "If it were me... wouldn't you?"

He looked out at the setting sun and finally nodded. "Yeah, I would." Nodding again, he looked at her. "All right. It's not a pleasant story," he warned.

"I didn't think it was a fairy tale," she replied.

He took a breath and began. "Just after we entered Hell, we all split up. We didn't dare get all caught in one place. Zuriel and I decided to stick together awhile longer and make our way past the base in Golgotha while we looked for covers. We... the demons were in full retreat, so there were wounded every so often on the trail. By some miracle we came across two very wounded demons in a mountain pass. We dispatched them... took their equipment..."

Wynn paused for a moment. "Zuriel was a perfect match for her cover, but the one I took... a lieutenant named Metheus... was missing his eye. Not from recent combat either. He must have lost it years ago in some other battle. There was no way I could pass for him for long with both eyes. So... I asked Zuriel... to take my eye."

Peorth's mouth was open. It took an effort to close it and whisper, "A _goddess_ did this to you?"

He looked down. From her angle, she couldn't see his good eye and wondered what she would see in it if she could. "No," he whispered. "She couldn't do it. She stood there... crying, saying she was sorry... because she couldn't summon the will to maim me. I told her it was okay. That I understood."

It didn't really surprise Peorth. She knew Zuriel had had a thing for Wynn when they were in the same unit, a fact she had thrown in his face more than once.

"So," he went on quietly. "When she couldn't bring herself to do it..." He trailed off, but rallied a moment later and finished. "I told her... I told her I'd do it myself."

Peorth felt sick. Her hand went to her mouth, and she closed her eyes tightly. A single, horrified tear ran down her cheek.

"Almighty be merciful, why?" she whispered in a sob.

He grunted at the irony of what he was about to say. "It was our duty," he told her. "We had a duty to survive as long as possible, to avoid capture, to stay _alive_ until the eve of the next attack." His voice dropped to a whisper. "To save a home we would never see again. It was the job we were chosen for."

She said nothing.

"And it worked. I stood not three feet from Hild, interacted with her on numerous occasions, and she never even blinked. I did my duty. And now I'm considered a monster."

Peorth's heart ached for him. She reached out and took his head in her hands, pulling him close until she could kiss him, not a kiss of lust or need, but one of understanding and love. She wanted nothing more than to heal his heart, to "fix" him. It was as if she thought that if she kissed him hard enough, poured enough of her love into him, his heart would mend and the patch over his eye would fall away revealing the restored blue orb she remembered staring into a thousand years ago. Or perhaps it was simply easier to do that, to believe that, than to hear any more of the horrors he had endured in the demon realm and the betrayals at the hands of the very people who had sent him there.

She wanted her lover back.

888

Urd's face turned red at the sound of the laughter around her. It was simply something the Norns had to endure in turn whenever Frigga visited in the company of others.

It was embarrassing story time.

The group, minus Peorth and Wynn, sat around the dinner table listening as Frigga did her level best to utterly humiliate each of her daughters as fairly and equitably as she could. It just happened to be Urd's turn, as she was the oldest.

"So, of course, my little Urd decides the best course of action at this point would be to cast a hatespell on these two men to counteract the lovespell," Frigga went on. "After all, better, she thought, that two strapping men detest one another than fall over one another making out. And, it was fully _possible_ that the spells would simply cancel each other out."

The room giggled. Urd's eyebrow twitched.

"Instead," Frigga continued, "It developed into a love-hate relationship. They're still together, but fight all the time."

The room laughed. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," Urd offered feebly.

"I had heard that Urd was considered your _wicked_ stepdaughter, but I had no idea," Gaeriel offered.

"Oh, and that was just _one_ of her little adventures," Frigga said fondly. "Though I'm quite sure she's had plenty I haven't even heard of yet."

Urd shrugged.

Sitting at the far end of the table next to Belldandy, Keiichi laughed. "You mean like the time she left the windows open and the Fensalir Marshes flooded the front hall?"

All talk stopped. Urd's eyes went wide, and Frigga's head turned toward her like a cannon sighting in on a target.

"That was _you_?" she hissed.

Sitting across from her, Skuld had to hold back laughter. "You're so busted!" she cried, pointing at Urd.

Urd's gaze turned on Belldandy. "I cannot _believe_ you told him!" she jabbed.

"I didn't!" Belldandy cried in reply.

The godly matron's eyes whipped over toward her middle daughter. "Belldandy! You knew of this?!"

The force of Frigga's gaze stopped the middle Norn cold. "Ano... Er... To be fair, Moder, you never actually _asked_ me if I knew who did it..."

Keiichi looked genuinely puzzled. He couldn't remember anyone actually telling him about that incident. It was just there.

_We're entering the next stage!_ he heard Belldandy's panicked voice in his mind. _Our memories!_

Before he could think a reply, Belldandy stood up and rushed from the dining room.

"Belldandy!" Keiichi cried, getting up to go after her.

Urd started to get up from her chair to go after them, but Frigga's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"HALT THY STEPS!"

The elder Norn froze.

Frigga's stare could melt lead. "It took seven days," she growled. "SEVEN DAYS IT TOOK TO CLEAN MY HALLS, FOREVER MEMORIALIZED AS THE HOME OF RANCID SWAMP WATER!"

Urd giggled nervously and sat back down.

"YOUNG GODDESS," Frigga pronounced from on high. "THOU ART _**GROUNDED!**_"

888

"Belldandy! Wait!" he cried as he chased her through the house. He saw her duck into her room and followed, finding the goddess backed into the far corner like a trapped animal.

"Keiichi, please!" she begged.

"Please, what?" he asked. "What's wrong? You look scared out of your mind!"

She swallowed nervously. "I don't want you to see."

He tried to put on a comforting smile despite his own trepidation. What could she have possibly done? Kill someone? What could possibly...

She looked to the ground and started to choke on tears. "Keiichi..." she sobbed.

He couldn't take it anymore. Before she realized what he was doing and could stop him, he reached out and took her hand.

The touch was a catalyst, and with a flash of discomfort, he was suddenly somewhere else, a park at night. He could feel the wind blowing gently across his face and hear it rustle through the trees. A small brook flowed past him, and on the other side he could see two figures seated on a bench. A tall man with dark hair wearing flowing white robes...

... And Belldandy.

She seemed different somehow. Something about the way she carried herself. She was younger. Her eyes looked on the taller man with trust and care...

_I'm in Belldandy's memories,_ he concluded. _But..._

Before he could think any more on it, Belldandy was standing in front of him, taking him by the shoulders and pushing him back away from the water.

"Keiichi! Don't look!" she cried. "Don't! Please!"

"What?! Belldandy! What are you..."

"Just don't! Please! I beg you! Don't..."

Unable to stop himself, he glanced over her shoulder at the couple on the bench. The tall man had Belldandy's chin cupped in his hand as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers...

_What the..._ he thought.

Belldandy, picking up on the thought, glanced backward and gasped. Turning back to him, she summoned all her strength and shoved!

Keiichi's eyes opened as he was flying across Belldandy's bedroom, striking the far wall and hitting the floor with a crash!

"Keiichi san!" Belldandy cried, her hand going to her mouth in horror. "I'm sorry! I..."

He blinked, numb to the bone.

"It's not what you think!" she cried. "You... You weren't supposed to know!"

He didn't speak. He couldn't. His mind was too busy trying to make sense of what he had just seen.

_Almighty, Neesan was right!_ she thought. She tried to enter his thoughts, both to explain and to make sure he was okay, but it was like hitting a thick steel door. She was being blocked!

She watched him rise to his feet and reached out to him, pulling her hand back at the last second, afraid of him seeing any more than he already had.

He swallowed as things began to make more and more sense. Looking up at her, he locked his gaze with hers, asking her eyes if it was true.

The pain in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

She was suddenly overwhelmed by emotion. Sadness, grief and more guilt that she had ever felt in her life. It made her sick to her stomach. She closed her eyes and tried to banish it from her thoughts.

When she opened them again, he was gone.

888

The woman who walked into the bar was a head taller than every other person there, but it wasn't her height that drew stares. Dressed to the nines in a fashionable black business suit and skirt, she carried her briefcase to the far table and sat down.

A smiling hostess stopped at the table and took her order, a scotch neat, and the woman removed her laptop from its case. Opening it, she turned it on and waited for the Demonic Operating System to boot up.

One of the men at the bar approached her, drink in hand.

"Good evening," he said suavely. "I couldn't help but notice..."

"Your wife, Yomiko, is cheating on you, and your son, Go, is addicted to methamphetamines," the woman told him, producing a business card from nowhere. "If you ever feel like making a trade to make things right, give me a call. Otherwise, fuck off. I'm rather busy."

The man took several steps back and nearly tripped over a couple in his haste to get away. Hild smiled dangerously.

"Welcome to DOS," the computer told her. "Currently, the market is up two and a half points. Would you like to know who won the Mountaineers - Blue Devils game?"

Hild sighed. "Oh, Duke, you always break a girl's heart." She typed a few commands and watched as a grid map of Nekomi came up. Moving her finger over the touchpad, she locked in and zoomed in on the temple where the Norns had holed up. As she suspected, there were quite a few extra gods there now.

Resting her chin in her hands, she thought briefly on how to proceed. Move too quickly or too vigorously, and the game would be up. No, this required subtlety.

As the hostess returned with her scotch, she entered a few commands, ordering the network to dispatch just enough force to get his attention.

She had a feeling about him. She always had.

The arch-demoness brought the drink to her lips and let the amber liquid burn all the way down.

888

Frigga looked up at the temple roof and smiled at the sight of Peorth and Wynn framed in the moonlight. Good for them! She hoped their relationship could heal them both.

Shaking her head, she continued her walk toward the grove of trees nearby. It hurt her to have to punish Urd, but she did swear that if she ever found out who... Well... That wasn't important now. Justice had been meted out, and all was once again right with Creation.

Smiling, she took a deep breath and let the cool air fill her lungs.

She heard the rustling of leaves behind her and turned, seeing a dark figure approaching her. She smiled. The boy's height and way of moving gave him away.

"Mr. Morisato," she greeted with a smile. "What brings you..." Her voice trailed off as he entered the moonlight and she could see his face. "Almighty best and greatest, Keiichi, are you all right!? You look awful!"

Keiichi looked haggard and pale. His eyes were red as if he had spent days crying. "Ms. Frigga, I... uh..."

"Come here! Come here!" she beckoned, taking his hand and sitting him down on a nearby tree stump. "What has happened?"

He didn't speak for several moments. Finally, nodding as if to reassure himself, he looked up at her. "Ms. Frigga, I have a question."

"Then ask it, young man!"

"Ms. Frigga," he began. "How..." He shut his eyes and rallied. "How do you return a wish?"


	5. Love the Sinner

Disclaimer: OMG is not mine. That's right, folks. Memorial Day weekend double update! Thanks for all the great feedback, I really appreciate it, and a special thanks to my pre-readers WillZ and Sethra. If you're into Slayers or Evangelion, give WillZ's fics a turn.

**Amants**

**Chapter 5**

**Love the Sinner**

"Neesan! Neesan!" Belldandy cried as she tore through the house.

_Where is she?!_ she asked herself. How could she disappear so quickly?

"In here, Belldandy."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she rushed toward her sister's bedroom and found the elder Norn standing in her bedroom doorway, her arms folded over her chest.

"Neesan! I need your help! Please!" Belldandy begged.

"Belldandy, I can't..." Urd began.

"Please, I beg you!" Belldandy cried, tears in her eyes. "You were right! I admit it! You were right about all of it!"

"You don't understand," Urd said, her eye twitching. "I can't leave my room."

Belldandy shook her head in disbelief. "What?"

"I've been grounded," Urd explained, exasperated. "I can't leave my room!" She rubbed her temples. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Keiichi saw!" Belldandy gushed. "And now I don't know where he is or what he thinks!"

"Gee, this sounds familiar," Urd remarked. "Almost like something I _said_ would happen..."

"Please, Neesan, I said you were right!" Belldandy sobbed. "Just help me fix this!"

"You know how to fix it," Urd told her.

Before Belldandy could reply, her earring started to flash in a soft blue light.

"What's that?" Urd asked.

Belldandy's eyes went wide in horror. "It's... It's a recall notice," she whispered. "The Warranty Program... One of my former clients is requesting a return..."

Urd blinked, dumbfounded. A return was simply unheard of. "Who?"

Belldandy started to shake. "Case Number one-one-two-seven-six-three-three-five-dash-R," she whispered. She started shaking harder, tears running down her face.

Urd watched as her sister cried hysterically. She didn't have to ask whose number that was.

"Keiichi Morisato," she whispered.

888

_**Twenty minutes earlier...**_

"Surely you're joking," Frigga told him in disbelief. "Keiichi, my boy, why?"

He tried desperately to keep the tears from bursting from his eyes again as he explained. "Ms. Frigga, I've done a terrible thing," he admitted. "I've done something awful to Belldandy."

"What have you done?!" Frigga gasped, fearing the worst. "Is she all right?!"

"She's fine," he said, realizing how his statement must have sounded. "What I meant to say was... my wish... I did a terrible thing to her with my wish... and now the only way I can think of to make it right is to undo the wish."

The queenly god knelt next to him and took his hand, patting it soothingly. "Let it out, dear. Explain it."

He cleared his throat and turned away. "I was so stupid," he told her, self loathing flavoring his words. Frigga's concerned eyes begged him to continue, to drain the wound.

He decided to start from the beginning. "When I first met your daughter," he explained, "I was so... so blown away by her. I mean she was perfect in every way I could think of. And my wish... I was just speaking off the cuff, you know?" He shook his head and blinked back tears. "I... I never even thought to _ask her_."

She put her hand on his back and comforted him. "Oh, Mr. Morisato," she said. "You had no need to ask. She is a goddess. It is her role to serve, to grant the most heart-felt desires of those who are deemed worthy..."

"I didn't wish for a dirt bike," he told her in a haunted whisper. "I changed _her life_!" He stood up and turned, looking down at her. "It... It never even _occurred_ to me to ask! It never occurred to me to wonder what I was taking her from! Family? Friends?" He paused as the train of thought entered a dark tunnel. "A boyfriend?" he whispered. "God forbid... a husband?" He turned away in shame as the tears threatened to overtake him.

"I know Belldandy," he told her. "Better than any woman I've ever known. So I know how far she would go to do her duty, to... to make me happy... And I know lately she's been terrified of me finding something out, something that... Something she thought would..." He shook his head.

Frigga watched him bleed for a moment longer. "Mr. Morisato, I don't know what you think you know, or what you've seen, or what is happening between you and my daughter, but I do know you're hurting inside. Hurt deeply."

"I... I can't take her life away from her," he said. "And I can't take her away from a man who loves her." He shook his head. "I won't. So I need to know... how to undo it all."

She nodded. "Very well," she whispered. "There is a warranty program. The wish will be undone... but you won't get it back," she warned him.

"That's okay," he told her. "I've already taken more than I deserve."

"I think you're making a mistake," she said. "But it is your wish and your mistake to make. The wish can only be undone by the granting goddess," she told him. "You'll have to face her. Can you do that?"

He nodded. "Yeah," he said.

Frigga nodded. "Then I'll issue the recall."

888

Belldandy's earring blinked while she futiley wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I can't believe it," Urd whispered. "It's a mistake."

"It's no mistake," Belldandy whimpered. "He thinks I... That I would..."

"He can't think that," Urd told her. "He's far too in love with you for that."

"It's like you said," Belldandy went on. "I didn't tell him, and now he's seen just enough to think I've run around behind his back." She sniffled. "Not that the truth is much better..."

"Stop that!" Urd hissed. "We have real problems to worry about now!" She watched Belldandy wipe her eyes again, and her expression softened. "What will you do?"

The middle Norn straightened, took a breath, and harnessed all the dignity she could into her shoulders. "I'll do my job," she said.

888

Frigga had left several minutes ago, leaving him to wait alone in the moonlight. He sat on the stump, his hands folded in his lap as he tried to rehearse what he was going to say. There was so much. Should he apologize? Tell her he loved her? Wouldn't that only make things worse?

He had to be strong. He owed her that much.

The sound of rustling nearby brought his head snapping up, and there she was, arrayed in the same flowing blue outfit she had worn the night they met.

"Belldandy," he whispered.

She didn't smile. The goddess gazed down at him regally. "Keiichi Morisato sama," she began, "I'm here to fulfill a Warranty Program request."

Taking a cue from her tone, he nodded. "Yeah."

She bit her lip and resolved to be strong, to not fall apart right now. She put on her business voice and continued. "You do understand that by undoing your wish under Warranty, you forfeit that wish and any resulting benefits from it?"

He nodded again.

She could feel his emotions roiling around in his soul, but there was nothing coherent, nothing that would tell her what he was thinking. The chaos within him was still blocking her.

"You know what this means?" she whispered painfully, her voice finally cracking.

"Yeah," he whispered.

She cleared her throat and squared her shoulders. "For quality control purposes... can you tell me what about your wish you found unsatisfactory?"

He didn't move for a moment, and when he finally did, he dropped to his knees before her, placing his head to the ground. She blinked in confusion.

"Belldandy," he began, his voice breaking. "I... I am so sorry..."

"Keiichi san?" she asked in genuine puzzlement.

He couldn't look up at her. If he did, he'd lose it. As it was, tears were already dripping into the sand below him.

"I swear," he sobbed. "I didn't know. If I had, I..." He broke off. "I want you to be happy... More than anything... And it was wrong of me to take you away from... him..."

She shook her head from side to side as it dawned on her what he was saying.

His head in the dirt, he couldn't see her silent protest. "I can't do that to you," he said. "I can't. I lo..." He swallowed and found enough strength to finish. "I love you too much to do that to you."

"Oh, Keiichi san," he heard her whimper. A moment later, she was kneeling next to him, taking his head in her hands and pulling his gaze to her. Closing her eyes, she touched her forehead to his.

"See," she begged.

There was another flash of light, and he was once again in that same park. This time, however, they were closer, only feet from the park bench. Belldandy stood beside him, but wouldn't look at him.

"Belldandy, I..."

Before he could finish, two figures entered the park and approached, the younger Belldandy and her... her boyfriend, he guessed.

"No," Belldandy said, answering his guess. "His name is Celestin, my teacher."

"Your _teacher?_" he asked.

She nodded as the two sat down on the bench. "My parents asked him to instruct me in magic and the ways of the world," she said softly. "We were very close..."

"I saw," he whispered painfully, but she only shook her head.

"The bond between teacher and student is a close one," she said. "I was very young, and he was... He was older, more worldly. He was like an uncle to me. I trusted him implicitly."

Keiichi turned as the two spoke to one another. The younger Belldandy looked up at Celestin with sparkling eyes.

"I have you to thank," she was telling the older man. "Without your tutelage, I would never have passed the trials."

He smiled down at her. "Belldandy, you passed your finals with your own skills, not mine." He placed his hand on her shoulder in a way that made Keiichi's stomach hurt in jealousy. "I must confess, I have greatly looked forward to this day." He turned from her and took a few steps. "It fills my heart with joy to see you come of age."

Belldandy smiled.

"Belldandy, I love you," he said, turning back to her.

The goddess didn't even blink. "And I love you," she replied. "Just like I love Moder and Father and Urd and little Skuld and..."

"No, I mean..." he began again, exasperated. "Belldandy... I would like to show you what I mean. Would you close your eyes?"

"Of course," she said with an innocent smile, shutting her eyes and waiting patiently.

Keiichi found himself growling as the older god approached her, took her head in her hands and kissed her. The younger Belldandy's eyes went wide, but she didn't resist.

"I don't want to watch this," Keiichi told Belldandy.

"There's more," his Belldandy told him.

A moment later, Celestin's eyes went wide and their lips parted as the god started to cry out in pain. He cried out again as someone tugged on his ponytail and flung him toward the creek!

Frigga stood there, her eyes lit up in rage. "You scum-ridden, filthy, underhanded pathetic excuse for a god!" she hissed at him. "Did you think I wouldn't know?! Did you think I wouldn't _see_?!"

"Moder!" Belldandy cried, obvious confusion on her face. "I..."

Frigga turned to her and held a finger up. "Belldandy! Silence!"

"Frigga," Celestin began, climbing to his feet. "I..."

"YOU WILL BE SILENT!" Frigga thundered.

The younger Belldandy looked down at the ground, her hand going to her hair as she blinked in puzzlement.

The older goddess glared at him in barely suppressed wrath. "I told you," she hissed. "I _told you!_ I _told you_ of her destiny! I told you what her future held! I _warned_ you..." she finished with a growl.

"Belldandy has come of age," Celestin replied cooly. "It's up to her to decide who she wishes to be with."

This seemed to only anger Frigga more. "Whether she chooses you or not, what you just did is so far beyond unacceptable that the _light_ from unacceptable will take a thousand years to get here! You took her first kiss from her like a thief in the night! That was _her_ first kiss, _her_ Sealing Kiss, and you _took it!_ It wasn't meant for you!"

"An outmoded belief," Celestin dismissed. "Belldandy knows I would never do anything to cause her pain." He looked up at the younger goddess but found Belldandy looking around as if searching for something.

"I knew it," Frigga growled. "They told me you were trustworthy, and against my better judgement, I believed them and trusted you. With her education, her safety, her _virtue!_ I should have trusted my instincts and sent you packing when you first darkened our door!"

"Frigga..."

"That's, 'Milady Frigga,'" Frigga told him icily. "And rest assured, The Almighty _will_ hear of this."

A flash of concern passed over his face. "I trust The Almighty's sense of justice..."

"I am his _wife!_" Frigga reminded him. "To where do you think his sense of justice will lead him!?"

Celestin swallowed.

"Your services," Frigga hissed quietly. "Are no longer required."

"Belldandy," he called out again.

"Be gone," she ordered.

With a flash of light, the god disappeared. Frigga turned and found her daughter standing there, a look of intense concern on her face.

"Moder," she whispered. "I... I feel like I've lost something... And I can't find it. But I don't know..."

Frigga looked on her with sympathy. "Oh, my little Belldandy," she whispered.

"It was meant for you."

Keiichi turned to the older Belldandy, who still wouldn't look at him.

"What was?" he asked.

"My Sealing Kiss," she explained. "Only one couple in every million has one. A kiss blessed by Destiny herself. A kiss that would remove all doubt or worry. They kiss and they simply _know_ that that is the way it's supposed to be." She looked down at the ground. "But it has to be the first kiss for both. It's a very old magic, priceless beyond words. The greatest love stories in history had them as well as the greatest tragedies."

She paused as Frigga held her younger self.

"I knew it was meant for you the moment you made your wish," she went on. "I just knew." She wiped a tear away. "I just... didn't want you to see," she went on. "To watch me... whorishly give it away to the first god who asked for it! I couldn't bear for you to know that I squandered what should have been my most precious gift to you!"

"Belldandy," he whispered.

She finally looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "How could I ever face you again if you knew?" she asked, her voice cracking. "I'm your goddess. That was the way it was supp..." She broke off and looked away, unable to continue.

"I don't want it," he said suddenly.

She looked up at him in astonishment. "Keiichi?"

He smiled. "Belldandy, it's not the way things work down here. We like to think it does, but it doesn't. A kiss can bring two people together, but it doesn't change who they are."

"But... It would have freed us both from doubt and... and jealousy and..."

"It would have made everything perfect from the first day," he finished. He reached out and took her hand. "It took me two years to get to know you as well as I do, for you to get to know me, and I wouldn't trade any of that time finding out about who you are... or ever think of it as wasted."

She sniffled. "Keiichi..." Suddenly, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. "Keiichi!"

With another flash they were back in the grove, Belldandy's arms around him. He reached up and hugged her.

"But I still should have asked you," he told her quietly.

She stepped back and smiled, tears running down her face. "Then ask me now!" she told him.

He swallowed. "Well... Belldandy, would you stay by..."

"Yes, Keiichi! Yes!" she cried, hugging him again.

888

_Wake up!_

Wynn's eyes popped open at the voice. Pitch darkness met his eyes. If he was reading the digital clock in his room right, it was eleven at night.

_They're here,_ the voice told him.

He didn't need an explanation to know what the voice meant.

_Size? Strength? Disposition?_ he sent back.

_Two. Brau Daemons, I think._ _They're outside in the trees, watching, trying to decide how best to strike._

Wynn paused. He should alert Gaeriel and...

_No!_ the voice argued. _If they see movement, they'll know they've been made. We must handle this ourselves._

Handle it? How?

He felt the shiver of anticipation that ran up his angel's back. _We have to take them out._

Wynn swallowed at the implication of that statement.

_They are Brau Daemons,_ his angel argued inside him. _Lesser creatures! They're not even covered by Doublet!_

The god felt disconcerted at the tone in Lucky Jack's voice. The angel was practically begging.

_Why do you think they're here?_ the voice asked. _They're here to take Frigga... kill Peorth... and the others. If we don't kill them now, they'll simply come back later in greater numbers..._

Wynn didn't need more convincing. Sliding out of bed, he crept toward the door and silently made his way to the back door. The tree-line was closer to the house at that point and he could sneak around the house toward them.

_They're splitting up,_ Lucky Jack told him. _One of them is heading toward the north side of the grove. The other is standing firm twenty meters ahead._

The spy god slithered on the ground like a snake, silently working his way up to the monster. The blue, goblin-like creature didn't notice him as it was so intent on the residence.

Wynn pulled a seven-inch soul blade from the hidden sheathe in his left sleeve and rose quietly behind the creature.

_Yes..._ Lucky Jack whispered. _Now._

It was over in a moment. The blade cut through the creature's neck, filling its throat with blood and making it unable to scream for help. Its body crashed into the brush next to Wynn as its carotid artery splashed black bile all over him.

Inside him, Lucky Jack laughed gleefully.

_One more,_ the angel told him. _Thirty meters north._

Wynn dropped to the ground and crept silently forward. Although the Brau Daemon wasn't far, it took several minutes to creep up to it.

_Not so quickly or painlessly this time,_ Lucky Jack told him. _A message must be sent..._

A message?

_Yes. We have to show them what happens to those that pursue us._

Wynn paused, his breathing was deep and labored. Killing the first one had been easy. Very easy. Very quick, almost... almost disappointing. Perhaps Lucky Jack was right...

_Of course I'm right!_ Lucky Jack berated him. _What do you think it came here for? Would you rather wait until it made its intentions so painfully obvious it would be too late to stop it? Wait until it had Lady Frigga sealed? The house burned down? Peorth pinned to the ground with that creature's slimy hands spreading those soft white thighs apar..._

_ENOUGH!_ Wynn shouted mentally. His pulse was raging in his temples now as he shook in fury. He could see the daemon's ankles through the brush. The god grimaced angrily and pulled two soul blades. Reaching out, he slashed through the creature's achilles tendons, bringing the hellish servant crashing down practically on top of him.

The Brau Daemon cried out as Wynn pinned it to the ground and straddled it. Raising his blades, he growled as began to filet the creature like a fish.

From his place inside the god's soul, Lucky Jack laughed in delight and relished in the high brought on by his master's act of murder.

888

Hild watched as the second green blip on the laptop screen flashed out of existence. This time, the two blips, one the attacker, the other her Brau Daemon, had been in contact much longer. He had drawn it out much longer than necessary.

She couldn't be more pleased.

"Another drink, Ma'am?" the hostess offered with a bright smile.

Hild looked up at the woman. The girl's expression was so bright and cheerful... and hollow. The arch-demoness looked into her soul and saw why. Smiling, she offered her the glass.

"What would you give to get back at him?" she asked casually.

The girl blinked in confusion. "Eh?"

Hild leaned back in her booth and smiled. "Your ex," she continued.

"I don't know what you mean," the girl said, looking away.

"Yes, you do," the demoness continued. "The one who said he loved you... slept with you..." she trailed off for a moment before adding. "... made you get rid of the baby..."

The hostess froze, her expression a firm mask. "Anything," she finally whispered.

"Sit with me," Hild said, gesturing to the empty seat across from her.

As the young woman sat down, she closed her laptop. There was time for a quick contract before she set off for the temple to deal with Wynn.

There was always room for one more...

888

Peorth poked her head around the corner and checked to make sure there were no lights on in any of the rooms where the other goddesses or Keiichi were sleeping. Content that no one else was awake, she turned the corner, her black high heels clicking against the polished wood of the floor as she walked and the hem of her shimmering black silk robe trailing behind her.

She knew it was rude to wear shoes indoors in this realm, but they went so well with the lingerie and completed the outfit. Besides, she wanted it to be perfect. It was time to make Wynn forget. All his troubles, stress and issues were going to fade away tonight. She was going to see to it.

Sneaking forward, her demeanor changed when she got to his room. Squaring her shoulders, she made an effort to look the part of the goddess of love she was going to be for him. Silently sliding his door open, she practically floated inside and stopped over his futon.

Reaching down in the dark, she pulled the blanket aside and blinked when she found he wasn't there.

Her eyes searched the room, but there was no light but that of the crescent moon that managed to peer in through the window.

"Here."

The whisper was faint, barely audible, but there. Turning, she saw it. A glowing ember suspended in the air near the closet, the lit end of a cigarette.

"Wynn?" she whispered back. "Are you okay, Cheri?"

She stepped toward him, the clicking of her heels surprisingly loud in her ears. "What is it?" she whispered.

Peorth could make out the shape of him in the dark, sitting with his back to the wall, his knees pulled up to his chest. The end of the cigarette was shaking.

"Cheri?" she asked again.

"Brau Daemons," he whispered.

"Where?!" she hissed.

"Outside," he replied. "Dead." He coughed. "I killed them. No... No, that's not right..."

Peorth summoned a rose to her hand which began to glow with a soft red light. The glow revealed his face, but at first she wasn't sure the rose was glowing brightly enough. It took her a moment to realize that his face was coated with a black film.

"Wynn," she whispered. "What happened?"

"I murdered them," he whispered. He looked up at her. "Petite Fleur... I... I can't stop my hands from shaking..."

She looked down and found his hands shivering as if he were freezing. Reaching down, she took them in her hands and found them also covered with black bile. The cigarette fell from his fingers, and she stepped on it to put it out.

"I murdered them..." he whispered again. "I didn't 'kill' them or 'neutralize' them... I murdered them..."

"Nonsense!" she gasped. "They were here to make trouble, oui? You killed them to protect us! You saved us from them!"

He looked up at her. "If that's why I did it, then why did I enjoy it so much?"

She swallowed and squeezed his hands. "You're under a lot of stress," she explained weakly, realizing how lame it sounded even as she said it.

"They're right," he whispered, turning from her. "Lind and Gaeriel... They're right... I'm rampant... Peorth, I've gone rampant... They turned me and I didn't even know it..."

"Non!" she hissed. "Non! They've got your thoughts and worries so twisted around that that's all you can think of!" She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. "You're not rampant," she whimpered, all but begging. "You're not."

She closed her eyes and tried to think. If Gaeriel saw him like this, she surely jump to the same false conclusion as he had.

"Wynn, Cheri, look at me," she ordered, taking his head in her hands and gazing into his eyes. "The bodies, where are they?"

"Melted away," he whispered, his voice detached as if he were speaking of something that had happened years ago. "Melted..."

She threw his arm over her shoulder and struggled to get him to stand up. He docilely followed her across the hall into the bath. She ran the water and quickly undressed him, pushing him into the hot water. Grabbing a washcloth and brush, she started scrubbing the bile off him. The Brau Daemons' blood was difficult to remove, but she finally scrubbed enough to reveal his face.

Draining the water, she helped him out of the bath and back to his room where she pushed him into his futon.

"Listen to me," she said, "I want you to go to sleep and say nothing of this to anyone." She caressed his face. "I'm going to fix it. I swear."

"Petite Fleur," he whispered.

She kissed his forehead and waved her fingers before his eyes. "Sleep," she chanted. The god's eyes fluttered shut, and his head fell against the pillow.

Peorth took a breath and stood up. Giving him one last look, she rushed back to her room and changed back into her regular clothes. A few moments later, she was outside, searching the courtyard, her glowing rose leading the way. Finally, she came upon what she was looking for.

A puddle of bile, all that remained of one of the creatures, lay before her. Kneeling before it, she tossed the rose aside and closed her eyes before falling forward into it.

888

Urd was painfully aware of every creak the floorboards made as she crept silently out of her room and toward the kitchen. If she was going to remain in solitary confinement, she was going to need supplies.

Namely, sake.

Creeping quietly through the house, she finally came to the kitchen cupboard where Keiichi kept the booze. The boy wasn't a heavy drinker, but he kept a bottle around for special occasions.

And for Urd, every day was special...

Smiling, she unwrapped the screw-top and twisted it off. Grabbing a sake cup from another cupboard, she poured herself one and started back to her room.

Downing the cup in one go, she paused to savor it... then blinked and turned toward the hallway.

At first, she wasn't sure it was really there. It stood so still, she thought it had to either be a statue or a trick of the light. It looked like some kind of monster, but if that were so...

The creature suddenly hissed at her and leapt forward!

Faced with an unknown monster and with only seconds to act, Urd dropped the sake and leapt to the right, right through the TV!

The creature hissed and tried to follow her, but ended up smashing itself into the television and knocking it over, breaking the screen.

It hissed and snapped its jaws in rage. It had been so close! Its charcoal wings flapped behind its back in frustration.

It turned suddenly as it heard someone approaching...

888

Urd saw the portal she had taken close behind her and concluded that whatever it was had destroyed the TV. Searching hurriedly, she found the closest TV to the temple and dived through it, nearly landing on six teenage boys who had been huddled around it.

Rising to her feet, she dusted herself. The teenagers looked at her in awe.

"Dude," one of them began, dumbstruck. "This is the best porno ever..."

Growling, Urd leapt out the window and zipped back toward the temple.

888

"Hey, you mind? People are trying to sleep," Skuld called out as she entered the living room. She saw the broken TV lying on its side and blinked. "What the..." She searched the room with her eyes, but couldn't see anything. Reaching out, she flipped on the light switch...

888

Urd landed in the grove of trees near the backdoor and watched for signs of a struggle or fight. If she could, she wanted to sneak up on whatever it was and hit it from behind, but if it was already attacking the others...

She steeled herself and prepared to move forward. Just as she was about to start out, something touched her shoulder.

Turning, she cried out and pointed a lightning-encased finger at it!

Peorth ducked and held her hands out. "Arreter!" she cried.

Urd called back the lightning and took a deep breath. "Almighty in Heaven, Peorth, you scared the crap out of me!" She got a good look at the woman and started. "What in god's name happened to you?!"

Peorth, her face and chest covered in black bile bit her lip and began the performance of her life. "Brau Daemons," she said simply. "Back there."

"Did you get them?" Urd asked.

"No," Peorth said truthfully while mustering as much sarcasm as she could into her voice. "I did this to myself! What do you think?"

"Okay! Fine! Sorry I asked!" Urd turned back to the house. "There's something in there," she told Peorth. "It attacked me."

"What is it?" Peorth asked, her voice falling to a whisper.

Urd shook her head. "Like nothing I've ever seen before."

They saw the living room light come on and heard Skuld's voice cry out.

"URD!"

"DAMN!" Urd cried, launching herself forward. Guilt and anger roiled through her at the thought of her having escaped only to give that monster a chance to kill her little sister.

Peorth followed behind her, readying herself for battle. They entered through the back door and nearly tore the door off its tracks as they flew into the living room.

Skuld stood there, Belldandy, Keiichi, Frigga and Gaeriel standing sleepily behind her.

"Is everyone okay?!" Urd asked quickly.

Skuld glared at her angrily and held up an empty sake bottle. "What happened?" Skuld asked. "Go Go Happy Panda get pre-empted for soccer?" She kicked the broken TV in emphasis.

Urd sighed in relief. "You're okay," she said with a smile.

"Okay?! You smashed up our TV!" Skuld shot back.

"And violated your grounding," Frigga added.

"Look, we have bigger problems right now," Urd told them. "There was a... something... in the house, and Peorth just took out a couple of Brau Daemons in the yard."

"Brau Daemons?!" Gaeriel asked, turning her attention to Peorth. "How many?!"

Peorth hesitated as she realized she had never asked Wynn how many there were. "I'm not sure," she said honestly. "It was dark..."

Gaeriel's head pivoted left and right as a sudden thought crossed her mind. "Where's Wynn?" she demanded.

"Sleeping," Peorth assured her frostily.

The valkyrie started for the god's room. "The house is falling apart, his girlfriend is battling demons and you're telling me he's sleeping through it?" she shot back as she stormed down the hall like a force of nature.

Peorth growled and followed her. "He was having trouble sleeping so I put him under," she told her. "He'd sleep through a train wreck right now!"

"Then he won't mind if I look in on him!" Gaeriel said, pulling the man's door open.

Peorth was half-afraid the room would be empty, but Wynn was snoring on his futon just where she left him.

"Satisfied?" Peorth asked, wiping away some of the bile from her face.

Gaeriel glared at her as she shut the door.

"Ms. Gaeriel," Frigga interjected from behind them. "Perhaps a better use of our time would be rigging up some kind of alarm to make sure the temple is not breached again?"

Gaeriel hesited but nodded. "I'll put some wards up," she said. "And I'll stand watch the rest of the night. The rest of you can go back to sleep."

"I'm taking a bath first," Peorth sighed.

"One last thing," Gaeriel said, stopping Peorth in her tracks. "Exactly what were you doing out there at this time of night anyway?"

Peorth turned to her and grimaced. "Whatever you're dying to imply, ami, just spit it out."

The others watched the exchange with interest. "I think you're covering for the rampant," she said tartly.

Peorth took a step toward her and growled. "Use that word again," she begged in a dangerous whisper. "S'il vous plait."

Gaeriel arched an eyebrow and stepped aside. "You can go," she said simply.

The love goddess pushed past her toward the bath and breathed a silent sigh of relief.

888

Worry gnawed at Keiichi's mind as he lay restless in bed, staring up at the ceiling. He never pretended to understand Heavenly politics or the way things worked in Belldandy's world, but he always got a little concerned whenever those politics came to his home. His earlier conversation with Wynn came back to him, and he wondered if this situation was about Frigga and Wynn or he and Belldandy.

_Keiichi san?_

_Belldandy?_

_Can't you sleep?_

He smiled. Since their talk in the grove, the mental connection between them both seemed to be even stronger. It was almost as if she were lying right next to him.

_Just a little worried,_ he told her honestly. _I've never really understood a lot about where you're from or how things work there._

_The situation is... well... complex..._

_Belldandy, _he sent, _When Ms. Gaeriel and Peorth were talking earlier, Gaeriel called Wynn a 'rampant.' What does that mean?_

He could feel Belldandy shy away from the question as if it were a dead fish found on the beach.

_It's not something we like to talk about,_ she finally sent.

_Why not?_

_It's a distasteful word,_ she replied. _Ms. Gaeriel was wrong to use it. It's low class._

_But what does it mean?_

He heard her sigh in his mind. _The original demons weren't demons, Keiichi. They were gods._

Keiichi blinked at this. _So you mean Marller and Hild were once goddesses like you and Urd?_

_Marller, no. She was born a demon. But Hild was once one of the most powerful goddesses in Creation. _

_So what happened? _he asked.

He could feel her searching her mind for a good way to word it. _A goddess is a collection of oaths, _she explained. _They are at the core of our being. We acknowledge, for instance, that there is no god but The Almighty and we are His servants. We swear an oath to obey Him_, _act in his interests. We swear to uphold and perform our roles to the best of our abilities, to preserve life where possible, and to serve the greater good._

She sighed sadly. _Some gods, however... There is something wrong with them... inside. They turn their backs on their oaths, consciously or unconsciously. They find themselves outside the great system that binds us together. The lines between good and evil, life and death, loyalty and treason are blurred for them or simply erased. Good becomes evil. Loyalty is only a word. Killing becomes as easy as breathing._

_Psychotics,_ he finished for her.

He couldn't see it, but felt her nodding in his mind. _The original demons were gods that became rampant. The Almighty turned them to demons and cast them out._

_So... Gaeriel thinks Wynn is becoming a demon?_

_No... Being rampant, in a way, is worse than being a demon,_ she sent back. _You see... it takes an act of The Almighty to turn a god into a demon. Until that act is done, a rampant god is still a god with all of the powers and privileges that implies. A demon cannot enter Heaven undetected. A rampant could walk into the Yggdrasil Operations Center and use it to annihilate billions before anyone even realized what was happening. That is what Lind is afraid of. That is why Wynn cannot go home._

_That sucks,_ he said simply.

_It's such a serious charge that you simply don't throw it around without a serious concern or proof,_ she went on. _For Ms. Gaeriel to say such a thing of Wynn in the presence of others without concrete proof was tasteless._

He mentally nodded. _Like accusing someone of being a child molester. Even if they're not, the suspicion hangs there._

_Exactly,_ she confirmed. _Poor Peorth's heart must be aching with worry._

_He seems like a good enough person,_ he told her.

_So was Hild once, from what Moder has told me. Now they really despise one another._

His mind flashed back to his conversation with Wynn. Without meaning to, Belldandy picked up on what was said. He felt her shudder with revulsion.

_I can't imagine being one of them,_ she told him. _To lose the moral compass that makes you you. To turn your back on the people you love. I'll never let it happen to me._

_I won't let it,_ he told her.

He felt almost overwhelmed by a feeling of gracious and tender warmth as she reacted to the statement.

_I know you won't,_ she told him. _For no other reason than that you anchor me. I could never forget how you feel or how I feel about you._

It was his turn to feel warm, and he smiled.

_Is it just me, or are you starting to think what Peorth and Urd did was an okay idea too?_

_Well,_ she sent, _Perhaps just a little..._

888

Peorth sat at the foot of his futon and watched him sleep. Gaeriel was suspicious, but she didn't have enough to conclude that Wynn had done anything but sleep. He was safe tonight.

She wondered about the next day, though. It would be easier if Wynn believed he wasn't rampant, but in his state, it was only a matter of time before Gaeriel had what she needed to justify taking him out.

He couldn't be rampant. He just couldn't be. Wynn had taken pride in his oaths, in his service to The Almighty. Although conscripted into the war, he had thrown himself into his duties, fighting just as hard and as skillfully as any frontline valkyrie ever had. He wouldn't turn his back on that, he simply wouldn't.

_And if he has?_

If he had, then it wasn't his fault! He wasn't evil, he was sick! And sick people should be healed!

_Rabid dogs can only be healed by being put down..._

_HE'S NOT A DOG! _she shouted back to her fear. She placed her face in her hands.

How much further could she go to cover for him, though? She was willing to take credit for killing two of Hild's lesser servants, an act of war. What next? What if next time it was someone whose death simply couldn't be justified as self defense?

_It won't come to that,_ she promised silently. _I'll fix him. I'll heal him. _

_They've never been able to heal any of the others,_ her fear reminded her.

_That was different!_

_How?_

_Because it wasn't him!_ she cried back.

She wiped her eyes and looked at him. Almighty in Heaven, how had it come to this?

What was she supposed to do now?


	6. Love the Sin

Disclaimer: AMG does not belong to me.

**Amants**

**Chapter 6**

**Love the Sin**

Skilled hands cracked two eggs simultaneously and dropped the whites and yolks into the wok. The eggs sizzled as the whisk began to stir them swiftly.

Skuld bounded into the kitchen and went straight to the kitchen table. "Good morning, Oneesama! How long until..." She broke off and blinked, turning her eyes slowly toward the person cooking at the stove. She started, her eyebrow twitching.

"About two minutes," Keiichi told her, continuing to stir the ingredients around the wok as they sizzled merrily. "You want juice or milk?"

"M... M... Milk," she replied, still not believing what her eyes were telling her.

Keiichi pulled a carton of milk out of the fridge and placed it on the table before checking the soup.

"Keiichi... Why are you cooking breakfast? You screw up take-out."

He shrugged. "Woke up this morning and just had the urge to cook."

"So... Where's Belldandy?"

888

"Torque wrench," Belldandy requested, holding her hand out.

Frigga searched the tool box.

From the other side of the motorcycle, Belldandy elaborated helpfully. "Red handle."

"Ah!" The queenly god pulled the proper tool and held it out to her daughter.

Belldandy took the wrench and continued working on the Beemer's engine.

"I never realized you were so mechanically minded," Frigga told her. "Skuld was always the engineer of the family."

Belldandy looked up and smiled, wiping a smudge of grease from her face. "I just woke up this morning and had an idea to improve Keiichi's miles-per-gallon."

"I see." Frigga smiled. "I'm so glad you two worked things out. You should have seen him, little Belldandy, so forlorn and despondent. Like a homeless puppy!"

"I do have one question, Moder," Belldandy said, returning her attention back to the motorcycle. "Surely you knew I didn't have a boyfriend in Heaven. Why didn't you just tell Keiichi?"

The older goddess shrugged. "Because it was something the both of you needed to work out. If I had solved your problem last night, what about the next time? No, this was something you needed to work through on your own."

"But what if he had..."

"Tell me, Belldandy, have things improved since your conversation?"

Belldandy blushed. "Hai. It's like we've become closer overnight."

"And if I had handled your issue myself, Keiichi would still resent that you wouldn't tell him yourself," she told her daughter. "Problems are meant to be overcome together."

Belldandy finished her work and stood up. "It was a big risk," she whispered.

"Yes, and you're the one who took it," Frigga told her. "Never forget, Belldandy, that the relationship you have with Keiichi is _yours_. No one can take it away but him and you."

She nodded.

"Now then, I think we should go see how Keiichi is faring with breakfast."

888

She watched his eye open and his head turn toward her.

"Peorth," he rasped. "What..."

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Better," he told her, rising to his feet. "I guess I have some explaining to do this morning..."

"No, absolutely not," she told him. She lowered her voice. "When they tell you, act surprised. You slept through all of it, do you understand?"

"What did you do?" Wynn asked her.

"I told them it was me," she whispered. "Gaeriel already suspects you. Don't give her any more reason to look at you."

He looked very uncomfortable, perhaps hoping it had all been a dream. He looked up at her. "Peorth..."

"I don't want to hear it," she told him. "If they think you're rampant, they're not going to seal you away. They're going to kill you."

"Maybe I should go," he muttered. "Just leave..."

Peorth wasn't sure to be depressed or hopeful at the statement. "We can go together!" she announced. "You and I!"

He looked up at her. "Peorth..."

"It'll be just like we said it would!" she went on. "We'll go to some primitive world and stay out of Creation's way!"

"Peorth," he whispered. "We're not talking about a camping trip. If I'm..."

"You're not!" she cried, rushing forward and taking his arms. "You're not! But that's not going to stop Gaeriel and Lind! We should go. We should just leave." She could see him start to waver and pushed. "Wynn, _please!_"

"Okay," he rasped. "Okay." He reached up and caressed her cheek. "We'll go together. Tonight, all right? In the meantime, let's keep it low key, all right? We still have to figure out someplace to go where neither gods or demons can find us."

She nodded and embraced him. "Cheri, I love you so much."

"I know," he said. "I love you too. And we're going to get through this, all right?"

"Come," she said. "Before the others wonder where we are."

888

"My boy, this is quite good!" Frigga told Keiichi as they sat around the table eating breakfast. "Has Belldandy been giving you lessons?"

Keiichi rubbed the back of his head. "I guess that's one way of putting it," he said, fully aware that the knowledge had come from his girlfriend's memories.

"Well, you should be quite proud," Frigga went on. "This is simply delicious."

"It's okay," Skuld relented.

"Hey!" They all looked up at the sound of the voice calling from down the hall. "Could someone bring me some breakfast!?"

Frigga called back to her. "Just as soon as we're finished, Urd."

"That sucks! I'm hungry now! I'm just going to come in and get some..."

"You will do no such thing!" Frigga shot back. "You are being punished!"

"Lame!" Urd fired back.

"Young lady, you stay in that room!" Frigga shouted.

"I'm a grown goddess!" Urd yelled back. "You can't just ground me like I'm a little girl anymore!"

Frigga waited patiently.

"Fine!" Urd shouted out bitterly. They heard her bedroom door slam, then quickly open again. "You can't do this to me! You're not my real mom, you know!"

"Fine, you want to go live with her?"

Urd cried out in petulant fury and slammed the door shut again. Frigga turned back to Keiichi. "Simply wonderful cooking, Keiichi." She turned to Belldandy. "Don't let this one get away, little one. A man who can cook is a rare thing indeed."

Belldandy blushed and fidgeted in her chair.

"Um, excuse me! Hello?"

They all looked up and saw a young woman standing in the front doorway, knocking on the doorframe.

Belldandy stood up and smiled. "Hello! Welcome! What can I do for you?"

The woman smiled and sighed in relief. "Hi, I'm Yuriko." She gave a short bow. "I really hate to impose, but I was on my way home from work, and my car crapped out on me in front of your house."

Belldandy clapped her hands together and smiled. "Well, fortune smiles on you! Keiichi san is great with cars!"

Keiichi swallowed a mouthful of rice and stood up. "I'll go take a look."

"I'll come with you," Belldandy told him.

The woman hesitantly held up a finger. "I'm... sorry to impose again, but... would it be all right if I used your bathroom?"

"Of course," Belldandy said. "Straight down that hall and on the left."

"Thank you." The woman started down the hall while Keiichi got his tools together. The hostess checked left and right, remembering the directions Ms. Hild had given her.

When she found the room directly opposite the bathroom, she quietly opened the door. Finding it empty, she reached into her purse and pulled out a black cell phone. Checking down the hall for anyone watching, she tossed the phone onto the unmade futon and started back toward the kitchen.

888

Wynn shut the bedroom door behind him and locked it. He wanted to plan this privately, go over the realm charts he found in Skuld's room. If he and Peorth were going to escape this place, he wanted to know exactly where they were going and how they were going to get there.

He paused as he was passing the futon. Something had caught his eye. Leaning down, he found a black cell phone sitting there. Picking it up, he tried to figure out how it had gotten there. Perhaps it was Peorth's...

The phone vibrated and began to sing.

"_But if you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me! Oo-oo-oooooo-oo girl, baby please don't go!"_

He opened it tentatively and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

The sound of the Mexican hat dance song blasted into his ear, causing him to cringe.

"Metheus! It's Hild! How've you been! It feels like it's been ages!"

Wynn went cold. He turned to the door and then to the window, expecting an attack at any moment.

"Look, bubulah, we need to talk," Hild went on. "One on one, face to face. What do you say?"

"You have to be insane if you think I'm going to walk into the same room with you," he hissed.

"Look, if you prefer, I can come down to the temple," she said, just a trace of threat in her voice. "I'd rather not do that, though. Frigga will probably meet me in the yard, she'll say some hurtful things she doesn't mean, I'll reduce her to a pile of ash and all your girlfriend's friends will start to cry... I mean, be honest, is that how you want to spend your afternoon?"

His mind worked overtime, trying to find some way out of this trap.

"Or you can meet me here at the bar," she continued optimistically. "It's Fiesta Friday! Hundred-yen margaritas and they serve these chicken wings that are simply _phenomenal_! Come on! We really need to talk. I'll guarantee safe passage. I swear on my daughter's life."

He paused. For Hild, there was no greater promise...

"Okay, fine!" she said. "I'll buy you a basket of chicken wings. _One_ basket!" She paused. "Your girlfriend's life may depend on it."

Wynn bit his lip. If he didn't agree, she would simply follow through on her threat to come here.

"All right."

"Bueno! Go outside and get on the main drag. Head north and turn left at the fourth stop light. It's called the Nyan Nyan. Don't keep me waiting! Hasta!"

The phone beeped as the demon lord hung up. He shut the cell phone and pocketed it.

888

"Welcome! You must be Mr. Metheus!"

The woman whose car broke down smiled as he entered the bar and led him toward the back without a word.

_At least I know how the cell phone got there,_ he thought.

He was led to a dark booth in the back of the bar where Hild sat waiting for him. Her laptop was open and a basket of chicken wings sat in the center of the table. When she saw him, she smiled warmly.

"Metheus! I'm so glad you came!" she greeted him. "Yuriko, dos margaritas, por favor."

The woman looked puzzled. "I'm... sorry, Mistress, I don't speak Sp..."

Hild waved it aside. "Margaritas, please."

Yuriko ran off to fill the order, and Wynn sat down. Hild pushed the basket toward him. "As promised," she announced.

Wynn's eyes darted from booth to booth, searching for her back-up or members of her Elite Guard.

"Looking for someone?" Hild asked, leaning back in her booth.

"You're going to kill me," he told her plainly. "Would you like to do it here or step outside and do it?"

"Metheus, really," she said. "I guaranteed your safety, remember? I keep my word, you know that."

"I also know what you do to spies and saboteurs," he told her. "I was your instrument, remember?"

"Indeed you were," she said. Yuriko arrived a moment later, placing drinks in front of them. "Which is why I've asked you here. I want you to be so again."

He snorted. "You're offering me a job?!"

"I understand that with the completion of your last mission, your time in the service is over," she said. "Which means it's time for you to explore new job opportunities!"

"I did what I did because I was loyal to Heaven, not because it was my job," he told her bitterly.

"Yeah, by the way, how is that whole loyalty to Heaven thing working out for you?" she asked with just a touch of sarcasm to flavor the words. "Did they throw you a parade in Charity Square? Did The Almighty pin a medal on your chest and give you a wink, one cyclops to another?" She winked to emphasize the joke.

Wynn glared bitterly at her.

"Did they even say thank you?" she asked.

"They don't have to," he muttered, sipping his drink.

"Of course you'd say that!" she cried. "They got theirs. Now it's time for you to get yours. Let me be frank with you, Metheus, I blame myself for what happened. You weren't ready."

"What do you mean?" he asked quizzically, his drink forgotten.

"Oh, come now," she chastised him. "Surely, you didn't think your little band of seven had me fooled?"

"Easy for you to say now that you know who I am," he told her.

"Yes, you and Elra and Basken," she told him.

It took every ounce of strength and control Wynn had to keep from reacting to the statement. Elra and Basken were the only members of The Seven still working in Hell...

Hild smiled, seeing right through him. "You are alive for the same reason they are," she told him. "Because you have potential. Because you're more like me than you think."

"Not true," he bit back.

She clucked her tongue at him. "Oh, really, Metheus. You can fool yourself all you like, but I've seen you... Seen you with blood all over yourself. I've seen you _kill_... And I've seen you smile afterward. I saw the potential in you from the moment you had the brass to walk into my hall. I decided to mentor you. My mistake was forcing you to choose between Heaven and me too soon. My bad." She held her drink up in toast.

He didn't reply, he was too busy trying to decide if it was true.

"No," she went on. "You and the other two are alive because you _like_ being demons. Because you _enjoy_ the work. Because you felt more alive working for us than you do now. Think about it. You've spent the last two days surrounded by goddesses. Tell me you don't feel like an outsider."

He said nothing.

"That's because you _are_ an outsider," she went on. "You were chosen out of all those gods because you had something special. They told you you were different in a key way. Did they ever explain it?"

"No," he admitted quietly. "I assumed it was some kind of aptitude..."

"It was moral ambiguity," she told him. "The seven of you were chosen, not because you had a better chance of resisting rampancy, but because you had a better chance of succumbing to it and fitting in with us!" She laughed. "Can you believe that! They sent you to Hell knowing that if too much time passed, you'd never _want_ to leave!"

"I'm not rampant," he told her. "I'm not like you."

"Of course you are!" she shot back. "You're one of us, Metheus. A demon like us, brothers to the bone. You can't escape that. That's why they won't let you back into Heaven. Demons don't live in Heaven... _ever!_"

"Then I'll live somewhere else," he said. "It doesn't matter as long..."

"As long as your girl is with you?" She tapped a few keys on her laptop and an exact copy of Peorth appeared in the booth next to the demon lord. Hild gave her an appraising look. "Not bad," she purred, smiling at Wynn. "I bet she's a minx in the sack, ne?"

Wynn growled.

"You believe your biggest problem is geographic," Hild told him, sliding an arm around the Peorth clone. "You think that if you just find someplace to hide from Lind, from me, you'll be all right. The problem is, it doesn't work that way. You can't hide from who or what you are now."

She caressed Peorth's face. "You'll resist, of course, trick yourself into thinking there's nothing wrong." She sighed. "But one day you'll come home from working at the paper mill or some other depressingly stereotypical job, chit chat with your lovely young goddess here, put on your PJ's and slide into bed..."

Hild ran her fingers through Peorth's hair as she spoke softly. "Spoon up behind her, whisper your 'I love you's,' close your eyes... and then..." Her hands took Peorth's head and jerked it to the right, causing a snap so loud everyone in the room must have heard it. The Peorth clone slumped down under the table.

Wynn leapt across the table and wrapped his hands around Hild's throat, squeezing as hard as he could!

Hild didn't look the least bit concerned. She smiled as he tried to squeeze the life from her. "You see?" she said.

"It won't happen!" he gasped out, wrath slurring his words and drool forming at the corners of his mouth. "I won't..."

"It's unavoidable," Hild told him calmly. "It's your nature now. Look at yourself. Ask yourself this: What am I most angry about right now? The fact that I killed something that looked like your woman? Or the fact that as hard as you're trying, you can't kill me?"

His hands loosened and released her neck. He fell back into his seat and looked down at the table. Hild rubbed a spot on her neck and grinned.

"I think you gave me a hickey!" she told him.

"I won't serve you," he said quietly. "I can't."

"I'm offering you a chance to have a life of purpose again, to be my High Inquisitor, to perform a job that only you can do," she told him. She leaned back in her booth and crossed her arms over her chest. "I've heard it said that it's better to be a slave in Heaven than a prince in Hell. Well, bubalah... Right now... You're neither. If you don't trust me, ask your higher self. I'm sure he can provide you with the right amount of insight to make a decision."

Hild closed her laptop and got ready to leave. "Give it some thought," she said. "If you decide to take the offer, just dial six-six-six-send." She stood up and started for the exit.

"I'll die first," he whispered at her.

She shrugged. "Whatever. Heaven won't miss you either way." She walked out the door, leaving Wynn alone to think.

To think very hard...

888

"Where is he?!" Gaeriel demanded.

Peorth looked up from her book, acting quickly to cover up the title. "Who?" she asked.

"You know who," the valkyrie accused. "Your boyfriend. He's not in his room."

A flash of panic welled up in Peorth's throat. "I don't know," she said honestly.

"Of course you don't," Gaeriel told her snidely. She sighed. "Well, at least he couldn't have gone far."

"What do you mean?"

The valkyrie gave her a smug smile. "Lind had all the hardlines leading out of Earth closed."

Peorth's heart fell into her stomach. "Oh?" she asked casually. "All of them?"

"Well... Except The Spark," Gaeriel confessed. "That line can't be closed. But you'd have to be insane to take that route anyway." She walked out of the room.

"Yes," Peorth agreed, depressed at the statement. She looked down at the book of realmic maps she had borrowed from Urd, suddenly useless for their plans.

"Merde," she whispered, tossing the book aside.

888

Gaeriel had just entered the living room when Wynn stepped inside through the front door.

"You!" she exclaimed. "And just where have you been?"

"What's it to you?" he asked sullenly, his conversation with Hild still weighing heavily on his mind.

"It's nearly seven o'clock!" Gaeriel chastised him. "You've been gone for hours! Where have you been?!"

"Walking," he told her.

"Walking?" Gaeriel's voice was incredulous. "Walking where?"

"None of your business, that's where," he answered, turning to her. "Don't you remember? I'm not a valkyrie anymore. I go where I please, and I do what I please."

"You will not leave the grounds again," she warned him. "I have no burning desire to harm you, but if you insist on..."

He took a step toward her and grimaced, his eye burning into her. "I was fast-roping onto the plains of Golgotha while you were still a twinkle in some wood nymph's eye!" he hissed at her. "So don't ever make the mistake of believing for one second that you can harm me!"

Wynn turned and started for the kitchen, and that's when Gaeriel made her next big mistake.

"We're not done yet," she growled, reaching out and grabbing his shoulder to turn him around.

It took less than a second for the spy to take her hand, twist her arm behind her back and knock her to the floor. Kneeling, he placed his knee at the small of her back and twisted her arm as a warning. The young cadet was trapped.

_Yes!_ Lucky Jack purred within him. _Time to teach this arrogant pup a lesson! Just listen to her whimper..._

Wynn's pulse pounded in his ears as he drunk in the sense of power that came with having this valkyrie in his power, of having brought her low. The urge to go further, to force pain on her, was akin to the most powerful of carnal desires.

But he didn't want power, he wanted acknowledgement.

"I gave up a thousand years of my life," he hissed into her ear. "A thousand years living in a nightmare that wouldn't end so that spoiled children like you would never see another Golgotha campaign! I don't want medals, and I don't want a reward. All I want is for an arrogant bitch like you to say 'thank you.'" He twisted her arm, and she gasped beneath him.

_They don't care! _Lucky Jack hissed inside him. _Lady Hild is right! They've forgotten us! Wrote us off! Just like they wrote off Elra and Basken and Zuriel! Break this bitch's arm! Make her hurt they way _we_ hurt! Let her know what powerlessness feels like!_"

"Wynn san."

His head whipped around so fast he almost broke his own neck. Belldandy stood in the hallway, looking down at them sadly.

"Wynn san, please release Gaeriel san," she requested simply.

There was no anger in her voice. It was as simple a request as if she had asked him to pass her the salt at the dinner table, but it was enough to snap him out of his rage. He released the valkyrie and rose to his feet.

Free, Gaeriel sprung to her feet and turned on him. "You..."

"Gaeriel san!" Belldandy snapped. "Neither your words nor your presence are helpful right now."

The valkyrie glared at them both, and with a sniff of protest, left the room.

"Wynn san, I apologize for Gaeriel san's rudeness," Belldandy told him. "You are not a prisoner here. You are a guest in this house, and she has forgotten that more than once." She bowed low to him.

The spy said nothing.

"I must also apologize to you again," Belldandy continued. "You saved my mother's life at great risk to your own, and I have been so... swept up... with my own problems of late that I haven't thanked you for that. So please accept my humblest thanks." She bowed again.

He nodded simply, then paused. Giving her a once over, he took a step toward her.

_I bet this one sounds like Beethoven when she screams,_ Lucky Jack noted.

He ignored his angel and addressed her respectfully. "You are a Truth-Teller, are you not?" he asked. "Unable to lie, even to spare another's feelings?"

Belldandy looked uncomfortable. "I can attempt to evade the truth, though recent events have convinced me it's not the best way."

"Then tell me this," he said. "Would you have said all of that just now if I hadn't been about to break that goddess's arm?"

The goddess paused. "To my great shame," she said quietly. "I must say I probably would have continued to overlook it."

"Thank you," he said, his voice just above a whisper. "That's what I needed to know. Now tell me this: What am I?"

She seemed confused by the question. "I don't understand."

"It's a simple enough question," he told her. "What am I?"

She gave the query some thought. "Wynn san, it makes no difference what you are, as long as you are true to _who_ you are."

He could see it in her eyes. She was evading speaking plainly because of what the truth would mean.

"Thank you," he said simply. He walked past her down the hall.

888

He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to make sense of it all. Hild couldn't be right, yet look at the evidence. That valkyrie had all but declared him the enemy, and even Belldandy, a goddess renowned even throughout Hell as a goddess of forgiveness, couldn't bring herself to call him a god.

Wynn knew what she wanted to say. She wanted to say he was a rampant.

But it wasn't true. It couldn't be. All of the warm emotions he knew were still there. Weren't they? He was still capable of mercy, of forgiveness, of love...

Wasn't he?

He would have let Gaeriel back up unharmed if Belldandy hadn't been there...

Wouldn't he?

No, he was a god. He was still a god. He would prove it.

He heard a knock on his door, and he stood up, staring at it.

"Cheri?" Peorth's voice whispered from the other side. "We need to talk."

Taking two steps toward the door, he flung it open and pulled the goddess inside.

"Wynn, we..." Before she could finish, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately.

For a moment, Peorth went limp. The force of the kiss just caused her brain to reboot, but when it did she responded by returning the kiss in full force, her arms encircling him. She leaned into him, gasping against his lips as the touch she'd missed for a thousand years suddenly returned to her.

Their lips parted, and he ran his fingers through her hair, kissing her neck. Peorth's eyes closed as she held him close. The two drifted until Peorth's back struck the bedroom wall. She held him possessively, and he took her hands in his, pinning them to the wall over her head as he kissed her again.

She broke free and put her hands on his shoulders, pushing him backward.

"Cheri," she whimpered.

Her voice caused his blood to boil in his veins. He could still love her, just as he always had before. Nothing had changed. Nothing.

He pushed her to the futon below and frenched her deeply. She took his face in her hands, but he once again took her wrists and pinned them over her head. His pulse pounded in his ears as she gasped his name again. Growling, he kissed her neck, his actions becoming more intense and less disciplined.

That's when he heard it.

A man comes to know the sounds his lover makes, and the sound Peorth was making now was new, something he never heard before, a whimper not of lust, but of pain.

He paused and looked up, at his hands wrapped around his lover's wrists. He was squeezing so hard, her hands were turning white, and his fingers were pressed so hard against her flesh, his nails were drawing blood.

Wynn looked down at her and saw her lean up to kiss him again, but this time, he didn't move. He swallowed painfully as the truth slammed into his heart like a demonic blast.

He was hurting her.

He was hurting her, and she loved him so much, wanted so much for him to be all right, that she was willing to accept that pain, to _let_ _him hurt her_, to soak it up like a sponge if it just meant she could be with him.

Hild had been right. It really was only a matter of time.

Noticing his discomfiture, Peorth paused and looked up at him. "Cheri?" she whispered.

He released her hands and held his palm over her eyes. "Sleep," he muttered distantly. An orange glow from his hand filled her eyes, and the goddess fell into a deep sleep, falling against the soft futon below.

Wynn took a deep, unsteady breath and backed away from her, sitting with his back against the wall. He thought hard about this meant. There was no way out. Lind would never let a rampant god run free. Even if they left, she would send valkyries after them.

If he was rampant.

There was one way to sure, he knew. Hild had told him as much. One being could tell him yes or no.

He steeled himself for an answer he didn't want to hear and called him.

"Angel," he whispered sadly. "Come forth."

He felt Lucky Jack, his higher self, the reflection of his soul, rise from his body and float to his left. Wynn looked at the ground, reluctant to turn. The last time he had seen Lucky Jack had been a thousand years ago, a handsome blond angel with deep grey eyes and a perpetual smile.

He turned.

The black creature's face was inches from his own. It hissed at him in greeting and spread its fleshy bat-like wings out behind it. Wynn forced himself to look at it, to accept it.

Lucky Jack turned and saw Peorth lying helpless on the futon. It hissed in anticipation and moved as if to go to her.

"No," Wynn whispered, causing the creature to stop short. "Let her sleep."

The creature nodded its monstrous head and disappeared within its master again. He bit his lip and pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes as he began to cry.

He only allowed himself a scant few minutes of self pity. He was what he was. It was time to accept it.

_No slave in Heaven,_ he thought. _But a prince in Hell..._

He pulled the cell phone and dialed the number Hild had given him.

It rang twice before she answered. "Well?"

Wynn gathered his wits and inner strength into his voice.

"Your Inquisitor awaits your command," he told her.

"Glorious!" Hild's voice replied. "Stay there for now. Lind has sealed the majority of ways in and out of that realm, but I'm working on a way to exfiltrate you through The Spark. I'll call back in one hour. Be ready to move."

"Yes, Milady," he replied.

"Oh, and Metheus?"

"Yes, Milady?"

She then said two words that brought the reality of his situation crashing down on him.

"Welcome home."

The cell phone clicked.

And he was alone again.


	7. Love Your Friends

Disclaimer: AMG is not mine.

Foreword: This is the conclusion to "Amants." I'd like to once again thank the AMG community here for making an author feel welcome with constructive criticism and thoughtful commentary. Just a few days before, "Broken Bow" passed 10,000 hits. I guess that means I must be doing something right.

**Amants: Chapter 7**

**Love Your Friends**

_I cried, "Never gonna hold the hand of another guy!"_

"_Too young for him," they told her,_

_Waitin' for the love of a travellin soldier_.

_Our love will never end,_

_Waitin' for the soldier to come back again_

_Never more to be alone when the letter said,_

_A soldier's coming home_

_The Dixie Chicks - "Travellin Soldier"_

888

The house was empty, something unheard of nowadays. Not a soul wandered the hallway, not even that damn, fat rat Keiichi couldn't seem to get rid of no matter how hard he tried.

No one except Belldandy, standing at the kitchen sink, doing the dishes.

She hummed as she washed a dinner plate, her hands covered in soapy water. This hum became a gasp as rough arms encircled her waist from behind.

"Keiichi!" she giggled. "I'm doing the dishes!"

The goddess closed her eyes as his lips found her neck.

"Keiichi, really," she admonished in a whisper. "My hands are soapy..."

Finally, the young goddess gave in and turned in his arms, taking his head in her hands and kissing him, getting dish soap in his hair.

Keiichi took her by the waist and lifted her up onto the counter before the two began necking again. The goddess wrapped her legs around him as they made out.

Standing nearby, Keiichi watched himself and Belldandy, his face thoroughly flushed.

_Wow,_ he thought. _I've had some pretty intense dreams about Belldandy before, but this is new..._

Before he could think anymore on the subject, a voice came echoing from the next room.

"Is anyone here?"

"Belldandy!?" Keiichi cried nervously. The couple making out on the counter paid no attention to the voice.

"Keiichi?! Is that you?"

With a sense of dawning horror, Keiichi remembered what Belldandy said would be the final stage of their joining before Epiphany.

Their dreams.

He dived for the door as he heard her footsteps approach, intending to cut her off, but he was too late. Belldandy walked into the kitchen as she had every day. Of course, there wasn't a couple making out on her kitchen counter every day.

"EEP!" she squeaked, her hand going to her mouth.

"Belldandy!" Keiichi cried. "Um... I know what this looks like..."

It was impossible for Belldandy to turn a deeper shade of red without entering into a whole new spectrum of light.

"Oh," she said simply. She cleared her throat nervously. "Um... Well..." She fought for composure and finally found some semblance of it. "Perhaps we should give them some privacy," she suggested.

He cleared his throat as their dopplegangars accidentally knocked the dish rack onto the floor.

"I think that's a good idea," he said with several very quick nods.

888

Wynn shut the bedroom door behind him and proceeded into the kitchen. Two hours had passed before Hild had gotten hold of him again. Just about everyone was asleep by now. Before he could leave, he had to make sure he wasn't pursued.

Gaeriel looked up from the kitchen table as he entered. She eyed him for a moment then returned to her magazine as he opened the refrigerator.

Taking a breath, he turned to her and adopted a contrite look. "Cadet," he began softly. "I feel I owe you an apology for what happened earlier."

The valkyrie looked up and blinked. "Don't mention it," she sniffed.

"No, really," he rasped. "We're both valkyries. I understand your position. I know it can't be easy." He paused. "I'll... admit... I'm a little frightened by the possibilities. But I want you to know... that if it must be done... I'm glad it'll be another valkyrie pulling the trigger."

Gaeriel's face softened, feeling ashamed of her actions for the first time. "I _am_ sorry," she told him. "I have not acted as well toward you as I should have."

He smiled. "I'd like to put it behind us," he told her. He held a hand out. "I offer you the hand of friendship."

Standing, she smiled at the gesture. "I accept, Lance Corporal," she told him, taking his hand in hers and pumping it.

"I'm glad," he told her with a smile. He pulled her hand to him and raised his other hand, bringing the port end of a gig stick down on her knuckles.

She looked up at him in shock as she disappeared, sucked into the portable seal, without even time to scream.

Wynn retracted the port and tossed the gig stick into the garbage pail.

_Too easy,_ Lucky Jack told him. _She deserved worse..._

He silently admonished his angel. Killing Gaeriel would kill a demon in Hell. He wanted her out of the way, not dead.

_Still too easy..._

He took a last, quick look around before stepping out the front door into the night.

888

Peorth hugged the pillow to herself and muttered his name before her eyes finally opened. Sitting up, she tried to recall what had happened. They were kissing, and then...

She blinked. Why would he put her under?

Yawning, she stood up. She would have to ask him as soon as she found him. Checking the room, she found a folded piece of paper with her name on it lying near the pillow. She opened it and read.

Her heart turned to ice in her chest and fell into her stomach. She shook her head, unwilling to believe the words that taunted her from the simple, one page letter she held in her hand.

Peorth's mind raced as she looked at the clock. Perhaps there was still time! Still time to catch him! To stop him!

She opened the bedroom door and looked for signs of violence, wondering if he might have tried to take Frigga with him or avenge himself on Gaeriel, but there was no sign of a struggle.

The goddess paused and forced herself to calm down, to think rationally. Where would he go? Lind cut the links between realms, which meant his options were severely limited. She remembered what Gaeriel said. The Spark! It was always open! It couldn't be closed, and only its danger prevented gods and demons from using it.

But desperate gods and demons just might...

She started for the door, accidentally dropping the letter in her rush. The nearest hardline to The Spark was a few miles from here. She might still be able to stop him if she hurried!

The piece of paper floated gently to the hallway floor, coming to rest in front of an open bedroom door.

A moment later, an empty sake bottle rolled out of the room, followed shortly thereafter by a groping hand in search of it.

As Urd's fingers touched the paper, she pulled it into her room.

888

The house in their dreams was identical to the one in the waking world, they found as they stepped out onto the back patio and sat down on the steps. It was dark out, and every star was shining.

Belldandy wouldn't look at him, and Keiichi, still mortified at having his fantasies displayed to her in full 3D, wasn't sure what to say.

_I've always been afraid she could see or sense that,_ he thought. _I guess it was inevitable..._

He saw her flinch a little and wondered if she could still sense his thoughts even in a dream.

_Belldandy?_

_H...Hai?_ she replied.

"Look," he said out loud. "About that... I mean... Well... I don't know what to say..."

"You... You don't have to say anything," she said. Although she wasn't facing him, he could see the tips of her ears were still a deep red.

"I mean... I'm sorry," he said lamely. "I don't... You're..." He gave up, not knowing how to make this right.

"You don't have to make it right, Keiichi," she said quietly. "I..."

He blinked as he took a peek into her mind. Her emotions were roiling within her. She was very embarrassed by what happened... but not in the way he thought... She was feeling almost exactly like he...

His eyes went wide as the implications of what he sensed hit him. He cleared his throat hesitantly.

"Um... Belldandy?" he asked. "Um... Stupid question, but... er... exactly whose dream are we in?"

Her head drooped in humiliation. "Gomen nasai," she whispered. "I didn't mean to insult you."

It was the college student's turn to blush now. "You didn't," he told her, looking away from her, totally unsure now of how to act. "I... I didn't think you... well... thought of that kind of stuff... about me..."

Belldandy squirmed in embarrassment.

He laughed uncertainly. "I mean... I'm not exactly a Hollywood star!" he laughed again to accentuate the point.

She finally turned to him. "What do you mean?"

This time he was squirming. "Well... you know," he told her. "I'm short... I've got the bushy eyebrows..."

The goddess blinked.

_Surely you can't possibly find me attractive!_ his mind blurted.

"But I do!" she cried in response to his thought.

Keiichi wasn't sure to feel puzzled or proud.

Belldandy's finger went to her lip in thought. "Your looks are very..." She paused.

_Savage,_ the thought popped.

"Savage?" he asked, blinking.

"That's not what I meant!" she cried, waving the thought away. "I mean..."

_Primitive..._

"Huh?"

"This isn't going well at all," Belldandy said exasperated. "You're very... male," she finished.

He blinked, still not getting it at all.

Seeing his ongoing confusion, she blushed and elaborated. "Keiichi, let me put it like this. Gods in Heaven all have perfect hair. They don't wear leather jackets. They don't ride motorcycles. It's those kind of attributes that when put together make you very... male."

_Oh my goddess, Belldandy likes bad boys!_ his mind cried.

"That's not it either!" she cried again. "You're a very good person! A good man!"

He grinned.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, unable to lose his smile.

888

Metheus approached the streetlight and the two beings that stood under it. Dressed in long overcoats, their heads covered with large-brimmed hats, they stood a head taller than the rampant god. They turned at his approach.

_Time to see if Hild was true to her word,_ he thought.

"Inquisitor," the taller of the two greeted him with a bow, his voice rumbling over the word in a dull baritone. "I am First Rajat. Our Lady Hild has sent us to act as your honor guard through The Spark. Were you pursued?"

"No," the god told him. "The only valkyrie close enough to interfere has been neutralized."

The creature, a Tannin by its size and the sound of its voice, nodded, pleased by this statement. "Then we should proceed. Two more of my clan await beyond the vortex. They will fight by our side, Inquisitor."

"Lead the way, First," Metheus instructed regally, some of the old arrogance of his demon rank returning to him almost too naturally for comfort.

_Should it not be comfortable?_ he asked. _This is what I am._

The two daemons flanked him as he stepped through the streetlamp...

888

Peorth leapt from streetlamp to streetlamp, trying to keep the directions straight in her head as she rushed after Wynn. If she could get to him before he reached the hardline, maybe she could talk some sense into him.

Tears stung her eyes as the words of his letter haunted her, unable to keep the lines from running through her head over and over again.

_My dearest Peorth,_

_As I write this, I'm listening to you breathe as you sleep only a few feet away from me. It's a sound I missed dearly along with every other thing about you I kept close to me. And it makes what I'm doing so much harder._

She turned down a side street and came up short. At the far end of the street, Wynn and two other men were walking through a hardline portal.

The goddess dashed toward it like a shot. There was still time! Seconds dragged as the lamp post came closer and closer and then...

She was floating weightless, a dry searing heat teasing her skin. She squinted through the near unbearable light and saw just below her was a world of fire.

Peorth had entered The Spark.

888

"It's not a big deal," Keiichi told her. "It's... flattering..."

_Comforting..._ his mind betrayed him.

Belldandy blinked. "'Comforting?'"

Keiichi came up short. "Er... I mean... It's not a big deal because everybody has those thoughts every once in awhile..."

"Do you?" she asked him point blank.

Now it was his turn to blush. Realizing he was trapped, he took a deep breath and replied.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Oh," she said, looking away in disappointment.

_Good job, Keiichi,_ his brain taunted.

"About whom?" she asked sullenly.

He arched an eyebrow. "Um... What?" he asked, convinced he hadn't heard the question right.

She wouldn't look at him. "You said you have those same kinds of thoughts," she explained. "About whom?"

He shook his head as if trying to shake water out of his ears. "Who do you think?" he asked, convinced that he was somehow walking into a trap.

The goddess finally looked at him, a sad look on her face. "Keiichi san, I'm just curious... I don't want to make you feel bad about thinking about Sayoko san or anyone else..."

His mouth dropped. "Belldandy," he said quietly. "I meant... well... you..."

"Me?" she asked, her blush returning to her cheeks, but also a smile.

"What makes you think I wouldn't?" he asked, too curious to care about what he'd just admitted to.

"Keiichi san, you're very kind, but I know my plainness for what it is."

_Is she high?_ he thought before he could rope it back in.

If she heard the thought, she didn't let on. "Neesan has always been the attention-getter in our family," she explained. "And that's how it should be," she hastily added. "After all, she's a goddess of love. It's only right that she be taller... tanner... and more well endowed..."

"You've got to be kidding me," Keiichi said, almost angry at what he was hearing. In response, she gave him a questioning look. "Belldandy... I mean... Has no one ever told you how gorgeous you are?"

She blushed again, her hand going to her face. "Keiichi, stop it," she said. "You don't have to..."

"Belldandy!" he cried in amazement. "Haven't you noticed how every head on campus turns toward you when you walk into the quad?"

"Of course!" she said happily. "We're all friends!"

"You've won Miss Nekomi Tech two years in a row!"

She blinked. "Hai... I thought my answers in the Q and A portion served me ver..."

He took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Belldandy! You're beautiful!" he cried. "I mean I'd..." He choked off the idea before he could finish, but his mind once again betrayed him.

_... cut off my left hand to touch you!_

Belldandy was purple at this point, stunned by the statement.

Keiichi froze, unable to believe what he was saying.

Turning her eyes away demurely, she whispered. "You needn't do so."

888

At their altitude, the heat from The Spark was scorching, but bearable. The hardline that led to the Demon Realm was still an hour away, and they would have to watch for dark matter fragments and quantum singularities. Realm 0 was not known for being hospitable to strangers.

Metheus tried not to think of what he was leaving behind. That was Wynn's life, and he was not Wynn. Thinking of it should be like thinking of a fictional character he read about once upon a time. It would be easier that way.

"My Lord, we are followed," one of the daemons told him.

He turned and could faintly see a speck in the distance behind him. The rampant didn't need a close-up to know who it was.

"Peorth," he whispered. He took a breath and made a hard call. "First, delay her, but she is not to be harmed."

Rajat nodded. "Continue on, Inquisitor," he rumbled. "We shall buy your escape with our lives if need be."

"As you should," Metheus reminded him with a touch of his old arrogance.

The Tannin bowed and turned toward the approaching dot in the sky.

888

_I have to go. I don't know what I am anymore, but I'm no god. Hild told me I was more like her, and maybe she's right. The one thing I do know is that I'm not what I used to be, and if I stay with you, I'm only going to keep hurting you, and I have no desire to cause you anymore pain than I already have._

Peorth searched the burning sky ahead of her. In the distance, she could make out five shadows against the orange sky. It had to be them. She flew toward them as fast as she could. There was still time! If she could get him away from the demons, convince him he was wrong...

One of the shadows stopped and turned toward her, and hope leapt forward in her heart. It must be him!

There was a flash of green light, and a ball of verdant energy shot toward her!

She gasped and dived downward, the sinister bright ball missing her by inches. Catching a better look she saw what it was, a tracking immobilization spell. If it hit her, she would freeze like a park statue...

And if it happened here, she'd fall right into The Spark.

888

"Um... What?" Keiichi asked in a whisper, now painfully aware that he was still holding the goddess by the shoulders.

Belldandy still wouldn't meet his gaze. "Keiichi san, you said you'd cut off your hand to touch me," she said plainly as if she were explaining something to a dim child. "You don't have to do that... if you want to touch me."

He swallowed painfully. "Belldandy," he whispered.

Reaching up, she placed her hands on his arms and finally looked at him. "Is it... Is it wrong to feel like that?" she asked.

"No," he said quietly. "I guess not... I mean... We love each other, right?"

"Hai," she said softly, leaning in.

"And we've been together for awhile..."

"Hai," she whispered breathlessly, leaning closer, close enough for him to feel her breath on his face.

Keiichi's heart was beating like a jackhammer at this point. "And it's not like we haven't kissed before, so..." He broke off as he felt Belldandy's fingertips on his cheek. "Um... Belldandy..."

_This is it! We're going in!_ his mind announced. _None of Urd's potions to screw things up! No Skuld to interrupt! Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines..._

He leaned forward, praying that he wouldn't do something stupid at the last second like sneeze or pass out. He didn't want this to be bad for Belldandy. Of course it wouldn't be. They loved each other, right? This was natural, right? It was meant to be, right? Right? RIGHT?!

"Keiichi san?" she whispered.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Please stop thinking so loudly and kiss me," she urged.

He closed that last few inches and caught her lips with his own. She sighed against his lips and held him tightly as his arms wrapped around her.

"Belldandy?" he whispered as the parted for a moment.

"Hai?"

"Well... This might sound silly," he said as she rested her head against his chest. "But... Well... Are you really you or are you a dream?"

She looked up at him. "Either way, I'm with you tonight," she told him.

He closed his eyes as she kissed him again. _I guess I'll just have to ask tomorrow morning..._

888

Peorth flew as fast as a goddess possibly could as the immobilization spell raced after her. She had tried to outfly it, to outmaneuver it, but it was following her relentlessly, gaining a little bit more every time she turned. At this point she had two choices: She could try more of the same and watch it creep after her, or she could dive.

_For the past thousand years, I was forced to keep myself from thinking of you. Thinking of home could have compromised me. So I put all my thoughts of you, all of my memories of us together inside a little locked box in my head. I couldn't open it, see your face, smell your hair, but I could look at that box and know what was inside and know it was all worth it._

The problem with diving was that if she got too close to The Spark, the heat would burn her essence away, and once she went lower, it would cost valuable seconds to climb again.

She turned sharply and watched the green ball of light turn with her. The spell was only six or seven meters from her now.

Just as she was about to give up and try diving toward the inferno below, several bolts of light reached out and tore through the immobilization spell, dispersing it.

Peorth blinked and looked around, searching for the source.

"Oi! Peorth!" she heard from behind her.

Her eyes went wide in shocked relief. "Urd!" she cried.

The other love goddess was flying toward her. "You're doing the right thing!" Urd shouted at her. "When a love goddess shees the man she wants, she rreachez out and takesh him!" She hiccuped.

Peorth blinked. "Mon dieu!" she cried in alarm. "You've been drinking!"

Urd looked insulted. "So what?!" she cried. "A goddessh can fight just ash well when she's drunk!"

She accentuated this remark by spinning suddenly and launching several bolts of lightning toward the four shadowy figures flying toward them. The daemons scattered as they tried to evade the blasts.

"Go after your man!" Urd told her. "I can take these ashholes!" With that, Urd flew right toward the daemons as they attempted to regroup.

Peorth saw the last shadow still moving away and flew toward him.

_All I wanted was to come home to you. All I wanted was to pick up where we left off, but that's impossible now. I've discovered the soldier's terrible secret: that to defend his home, he becomes estranged from it; in defending his values, he must contravene them; in defending civilized peace, he must immerse himself in uncivilized violence. I have become the monster I once fought so hard to protect you from. _

She willed herself to go faster. There was still time! She could still fix this!

The goddess could make out more details now. It was definitely him. She could almost reach out and touch him.

At the very last second, he rolled onto his back and snagged her wrists in his hands. Twisting around he tossed her up and away from him. It took a moment, but she recovered, floating to a stop in front of him.

"Wynn!" she cried. "Don't do this!"

"Go home, Peorth," he told her, the love in his voice gone. "This is the way it has to be."

"No it doesn't!" she replied, shaking her head. "I can help you! I can fix you! I promise!"

"There's no going back," he told her. "This is what I am." Peorth started to open her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. "Peorth, do not make me choose between you and my queen," he warned. "I'm not sure who would win out at this point."

The statement floored her. "Cheri," she whispered.

"There's nothing for you here," he said, turning from her. "Time for you to go."

The dismissal left her dumbstruck. She watched as he started to float away.

_I can't say for certain when it happened, can't point to where Wynn ended and Metheus began, but I do know that the god you knew and loved died long ago, and in his place stood a demon who dreamed of having what had belonged to another._

Steeling herself, she leapt toward him, smashing into him at full speed! Turning, he snarled and wrapped his hands around her throat.

She gasped as she fought for air, her eyes looking into his and seeing not the gentle pool of blue she remembered, but a harsh and violent sea.

Something dark obscured him for a moment as... something... emerged from him. Looking up, she saw the creature from her dream, hissing at her in rage. The goddess wept deep in her heart as she recognized the creature's grey eyes as those belonging to Lucky Jack.

Fighting for breath, she reached up and took his head in her hands. His fingers sinking deeper into her throat, she mouthed three words...

"Angel, come forth..."

With a flash of light, Gorgeous Rose emerged from her back and darted forward. Lucky Jack snarled and braced himself for an attack, but was shocked still when the angel suddenly grabbed him and kissed him full on the lips.

Metheus gasped as the two angels merged into one amalgamation of darkness and light. His hands loosened, and Peorth breathed deep as she closed her eyes and embraced him.

They began to fall.

Peorth saw all of it, every moment of a thousand years as their souls, minds and bodies mixed. She could feel his spirit within him, crying, weeping at what it had become and the despair that came with knowing it could never go back to being what it once was. It noticed her, flung itself into her spirit's arms, sobbing, begging her for comfort, for forgiveness.

She shushed it gently, offering it as much love as she could, but there was so much wrong with it, so much of it out of place, corrupted, _wrong_...

It wanted to go home. It wanted to go home so badly it ached. It just wanted to go home...

Why couldn't it just go home?!

Peorth held Metheus tightly and whispered. "You're home... You're home..."

They continued to fall toward the fires below.

888

"PANDA SMASH!" Urd cried as her fist smashed into the Tannin, sending it flying off into space.

Urd watched as the last wounded daemon flew off in retreat and clapped the dust off her hands.

"Nothing like a good fight to burn the alcohol out," she noted with a smile. She looked around and blinked. She couldn't see them.

"Peorth?" she called out. "Peorth! Where are you?! I can't see you! Peorth?!"

888

The heat from The Spark was starting to hurt now, but Peorth didn't care. She held him as they fell.

"Peorth!" she heard. "Peorth, I can't see you! Where are you?!"

She gathered her thoughts for a mental send and sent a message to the Norn's mind. "It's okay, Urd," she whispered, tears in her eyes. "Just let us go. Let us go..."

Her clothes were starting to blacken from the heat, her skin turning red.

_I now know for certain who I am, but I'll be damned if I know the point. I cannot ignore what I am, cannot turn my back on my nature. So instead, I choose to embrace it. I am what I am and no more. So I will return to Hell, serve my queen to the best of my ability and try to forget the lover I leave behind._

She squeezed him tightly.

Her eyes shot open as she suddenly lurched to a stop. Metheus continued falling, breaking their link.

_No!_ her mind gasped, reaching out to him.

She looked up and found a severely sunburned Urd pulling her up by the leg. Peorth fought for a moment, trying to get back to him, but she couldn't even see him through The Spark's corona now.

_Good bye, Peorth. Je'taime._

_I love you._

_Metheus_

"Wynn," she croaked, reaching down for him.

The heat started to subside, and Urd leaned down to get a better hold, taking her by the arm and releasing her leg.

"Come on," Urd urged softly. "I know. I know you didn't want to lose him again. I'm sorry."

Peorth curled up into a ball and started to cry, her mind clutching to those final few moments she had with him.

888

The link broken, Lucky Jack had hidden himself within his host again, leaving Metheus to fall toward the Spark alone. He fell with his right side facing downward, the scars on his face taking most of the heat damage, further disfiguring him, but he didn't care. In a few moments, it would be over.

Or so he had thought before he slowed to a stop.

Someone clucked their tongue at him.

"Metheus... Bubalah, what _am_ I going to do with you?"

He rolled onto his back and found Hild floating above him, not at all put off by the heat of The Spark's corona.

Metheus sighed, not sure whether to be pleased or not.

"Come along," Hild told him with a grin as they floated upward. "Tomorrow is another day!"

888

Keiichi cautiously entered the kitchen and found Belldandy there, humming as she expertly worked on this morning's breakfast.

"Good morning, Keiichi san!" she said, not turning to him, but sensing his presence.

"Good morning," he returned with a smile of his own. He wasn't quite sure what to say next. After all, he wasn't one hundred percent sure that what happened last night was real... given that it was a dream to begin with. Was it really Belldandy or had it just been...

Placing the bowl on the counter, she turned, dried her hands on a towel and gave him a quick kiss. "I was there, and it was real," she assured him with a smile.

He turned red. "Oh!" he said lamely. "That's... good."

"Hai!" she replied. "Very good!"

She leaned toward him and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Perhaps tonight... in the waking world this time?"

His heart beat faster, and hers accelerated to catch up.

"Yeah," he whispered back, his mouth suddenly dry. "That would be..."

She gave him another kiss. "Wonderful?" she prompted.

"Yeah," he said again stupidly. "Um... But before that... Well... We have about an hour. How do you want to do this?"

The goddess took his hand and looked into his eyes. "Somewhere we can enjoy it."

Stepping away, she went back to the counter and picked up the cutting board. Taking it to the garbage can, she started to scrape the discarded vegetables from the soup into it, but paused.

"Eh?" she asked, reaching down. "Keiichi san, did you throw away a flash drive?"

888

Peorth sat in Wynn's room, holding his blanket close to her and staring off into nothingness. Urd had brought the weeping goddess home, healed her burns and bundled her up in her room. Early that morning, though, she had wandered into her lover's room, searching for some remnant of him, something she could cling to.

She had been fully prepared to go with him, to die with him in The Spark. It wouldn't have mattered because they would have been together. That's the way it was supposed to be. Lovers were supposed to die together!

The goddess squeezed the blanket harder, not even looking up as the door opened and Urd and Frigga stepped inside.

They waited for a moment, wondering if she'd acknowledge them, but she never did.

"See?" Urd whispered. "She's been like this since we got back."

The godly queen stepped forward and sat on the futon next to Peorth as Urd watched, unsure of exactly what to do, but instinctively understanding that Frigga would know. Frigga placed her hand on Peorth's shoulder and watched as the other goddess looked up at her with tear-filled eyes.

"I'll never love anyone," Peorth whispered, fresh tears welling up in her eyes. "I'll never love anyone again!" she cried, shaking her head.

Frigga looked on her with sympathetic eyes, reaching out to pull her close. "Shhhh," she shushed. "It's all right."

Sobbing, Peorth hugged her and broke down in her arms. Frigga let her cry, knowing that no words would bring comfort to her now.

888

Holding hands, Keiichi and Belldandy entered the goddess' room and sat down on her futon. When Gaeriel had popped out of the flash seal, she was out for blood. Fortunately, Urd had emerged from Peorth's room and explained the events from the night before. Gaeriel was convinced it was some kind of trick and demanded to interrogate Peorth.

At which point Urd shoved her back into the flash seal.

_Do you think Urd will get into trouble? No. She'll give the seal to Moder. She'll deliver it to Lind. But maybe... Shhh, Keiichi, trust Neesan._

Epiphany was only minutes away, and their thoughts had become so close it couldn't really be called conversation anymore. Simply shared thoughts. Their heartbeats had synchronized, and somehow it felt wrong to not hold hands, to not share some kind of physical contact.

They laid down on their sides, facing one another, their hands held between them as they looked at each other.

_I'm starting to feel a little weird. Don't worry, I'm here. It'll be wonderful. Are you sure? Hai. We'll be one._

He swallowed nervously.

_Peorth told me that this was like when gods and goddesses make love. Hai. It's the blending of the physical, mental and spiritual. I love you. I love you too..._

He looked into her eyes and could see his reflection in them. It took him a moment to realize, however, that he wasn't seeing his reflection, but seeing himself through her eyes. He blinked as he started to see things in his mind, not so much memories but _ways_ of looking at things, looking at the world as Belldandy did, through the lens of her mind and heart. He felt her grip on his hand tighten and knew she was going through the same thing.

Suddenly, it was if their lives were spread out before them, and they saw how all the pieces, all the moments and choices, fit together, how many different events had to occur in order for this one moment to happen. There was no way to go back and change one thing to alter their lives, because every choice they had made, no matter how minuscule, had moved them closer and closer to being together.

They were one in the same, and of course it was natural for it to be that way. It was supposed to be that way.

They just knew.

_You're beautiful,_ both heard from the other, both in their voice and the other's.

He opened his eyes and found Belldandy staring back at him, wide-eyed. Gasping for breath, he blinked rapidly.

"Keiichi san?" she whispered. "Are you all right?"

_Yeah,_ he sent. He blinked as he realized she couldn't hear him and he couldn't hear her in his mind. "Yeah," he added vocally. "It's just... Wow..."

She smiled. "It was my first time," she admitted.

"I know," he said, smiling back. "Mine too."

"And I'm so happy it was with you," she whispered.

"Me too," he told her. "So... I guess it's over, huh?"

"Hai," she agreed, a touch of sadness in her voice.

He chuckled, and she gave him a questioning look, a little annoyed that she couldn't just take the answer from his mind anymore.

"It just occurred to me," he said. "No matter what else happens between us, I'm never going to know any woman better than you."

She sidled closer to him. "Do you _want_ to know a woman better than me?"

He smiled. "Can't you tell for yourself?"

"Keiichi san!" she pouted. "Don't tease!"

He laughed again.

"What now?" she asked.

"I was just... I mean look at us," he told her. "Three days ago, I'd be fidgeting and nervous, and you'd..."

"Be puzzled," she supplied.

"Yeah," he said. "Now..." He squeezed her hand. "Now, I can't imagine being any other way."

She scooted closer and wrapped her arm around him, offering him a kiss. "Of course," she whispered. "We're lovers now. It's only natural."

"Lovers," he repeated. "I like the way that sounds."

888

Peorth wiped her eyes as she pulled away from Frigga after more than an hour of crying into the older goddess's shoulder.

"Merci," she whispered.

"Child, I know it seems dark now, but give it time and your spirit will brighten again."

Urd had retaken her place just inside the door.

"Merci, Madame Frigga," Peorth said again, regaining some of her composure. "I appreciate your concern for me."

"I'll be returning to Heaven soon," Frigga told her. "Do you have a message for Freya?"

Peorth shook her head. "I think I'll be returning myself soon."

"You shouldn't go yet," Urd spoke up from the door.

Peorth looked up at her, and Frigga hid a look of intense discomfort.

Urd smiled. "You should take some time, Peorth. Rest your spirit. You're among friends here. There's no work to be done here. Just take it easy for awhile."

"Urd is quite right," Frigga agreed, putting on a smile. "I will talk to Freya, see to it that she gives you some time off. She will listen to me, I'm sure." She stood up. "In the meantime, rest for a time, child."

"Oui," Peorth agreed, looking back down at the futon. Squeezing the blanket again, she laid down as the other two goddesses left the room. Closing her eyes, she breathed deep and relished the remaining scent of him.

Frigga waited until they were down the hall and out of earshot before speaking again.

"The Almighty help you, Urd," she muttered.

Urd stopped and gave Frigga a firm look. "You'd rather Lind and Gaeriel meet her at the gate?" she asked, tossing the flash drive to her stepmother. "Gaeriel's in there and looking for a fight. Do me a favor and don't let her loose before you get to Heaven."

Frigga shook her head. "It's not right," she told her. "That poor girl has been through enough."

"And I don't want her to go through more!" Urd shot back. "She _melded_ with him, Frigga!" she hissed. "And you know as well as I do that a piece of the other always remains. If she shows up in Heaven now, and Lind gets even a little suspicious..."

Frigga took a breath and nodded. "Do you really think she retained an infected piece of him?"

"I don't know," Urd admitted. "But if she did... then it's only a matter of time."

The queen looked back down the hall toward Peorth's room. "I owe that god my life," she reminded her. "If helping Peorth can help repay that debt, then you have my silence."

888

Peorth stared up at the ceiling, but in her mind she was working diligently as she brought up every memory she had of him over the last few days. She relived the shock of first seeing him lying on their dinner table, felt his heartbeat under her ear as she rested across his chest waiting for him to wake up, and felt the renewed fire of passion at kissing him again for the first time in a thousand years.

She held each memory like holding a photo in her hands, allowing herself a moment to enjoy each one, before placing it in a box inside her head.

Their conversation on the roof...

Holding him in the bath...

Embracing him in his room as they plotted their escape...

His last letter to her...

Their last embrace...

One by one, she gently placed each moment in time into the box. Then, summoning all the strength that remained in her heart, she willed herself to close the box and lock it just as he had done with his memories of her.

_Perhaps, one day..._ she thought. _One day, I'll be able to open it again. _

Until that day, though, she would do her best to forget.

Until that day...


End file.
